Phoenix: Rebirth
by cometothedarksidewehavecookies
Summary: Jack wakes up in the past, the question is, is it a dream? Alien influence? Or a miracle? What should he do with this mystery? Jack/Ianto Sequel now up.
1. Heaven or Hell?

A/N: I do not own Torchwood or any of the characters, I do not make any money from this.

This is a Torchwood story with some Doctor Who crossover in the first few episodes.

Knowledge of Torchwood series 1-3 is advised, and Doctor Who mostly where Jack interacts with him in canon. Also some knowledge of Matt Smith Doctor.

Chapter One: Heaven or Hell?

Jack yawned and stretched slightly squeezing his eyes shut before sitting up and pushing back the light blanket across his legs as he opened his eyes. Jack paused as he looked around him, in a confused state he stood up and double checked he was where he thought he was.

Jack was in his room below his office in the hub. Considering that the last thing Jack knew, he wasn't on Earth so this was a surprise, regardless of the fact that the hub had been destroyed.

Jack moved across to his wardrobe and saw that it was full of his clothes, the usual trousers and various shirts as well as multiple undershirts as well as random bits of clothing he had collected over the years, he shook his head as he noticed the lack of Ianto's suits.

Puzzling over the situation Jack hesitantly went up the ladder into his office, he was definitely in the hub, his office was exactly as it was before. Jack rubbed the back of his neck as he leant in the doorway of his office and overlooked the hub that looked exactly as it had previously. Jack wandered the hub startling when he spotted something near the cog door, he rushed over and picked up Doctor's hand in its container. "What the hell?" Jack said out loud in his shock, he had given this back to the Doctor ages ago, how was it here!

"Sir?" A lilting voice interrupted Jack.

"Ianto!" Jack looked up and saw the young Welshmen standing over by the coffee machine a frown marring his face.

"Is everything alright sir?" Ianto asked in excess professionalism.

Jack frowned, usually Ianto would drop the professional mask when they were alone, even if they were in the hub together.

"Yeah, erm sure." Jack stammered in his shock.

The last thing Jack knew was being in a seedy bar on the other side of the galaxy, trying to get over the recent events of the 456 that had destroyed his life.

Ianto was dead, more than that Ianto died a second time sealing the rift for the final time. Yet here he was standing in one of his impeccable suits, a black 2-piece suit and white shirt. Jack looked over him carefully, trying to decipher if there was a trick going on.

"Sir," Ianto seemed flustered and fidgeted, pulling down the sleeve of his suit.

"Ianto." Jack repeated in a strange voice wondering what was happening. He took a hesitant step closer before hurrying over to Ianto. "You're really here." Jack hugged Ianto tightly savouring the unique smell of Ianto, he belatedly realised that Ianto wasn't hugging back and Jack took a step backwards to see Ianto looking incredibly confused and shocked.

"What's wrong Ianto?" Jack asked softly, still trying to spot mistakes in this seemingly good piece of trickery, or very good unfortunately tame dream. He had heard of a few species that could manipulate people using their own memories, Jack's own guilt and despair over Ianto could provide enough of an attraction, so why was he acting so strange if this was a hallucination?

The cog door next to Jack blared and rolled open revealing Toshiko Sato, who looked startled upon seeing Jack, a light blush forming on her cheeks as she looked away.

"What?" Jack asked.

Tosh gestured to Jack who looked down, apparently in his confusion he didn't dress before leaving his room, at least he was wearing boxers.

"See something you like?" Jack grinned at Ianto as Tosh had hurried past in embarrassment.

Ianto was blushing lightly, but didn't look away to Jacks amusement.

As long as it was some fantasy of his own imagination, he was going to enjoy it. Maybe with some clothes.

Jack retreated back to his office and his room underneath to get dressed, once more wondering about the lack of Ianto's suits, if this was some fantasy or alien induced delusion, wouldn't it have been from the time where Ianto and he were in the high points of their relationship, maybe he was being punished, having Ianto so close but not being able to have him.

Jack left his office shortly after dressing, he took another look at the Doctor's hand, and it was definitely still there. He shrugged and accepted a mug of Ianto's coffee puzzled when the younger man simply gave it to him before disappearing. Jack sighed lightly, wondering if maybe he was in purgatory, if such a thing existed.

"God I feel like I've been run over by a truck. Where's my coffee tea boy?" Owen bellowed rudely from his desk, he must have arrived before Jack finished dressing.

Ianto gave Owen his coffee and retreated again leaving Jack puzzled once more.

The cog door rolled back once more revealing Suzie Costello, who dumped her bag at her desk shooting the others a greeting as she passed a shocked Jack.

"Sorry I'm a little late." Suzie apologised gently taking a hold of a few files from her desk and waving Ianto a thanks.

"Erm, sure." Jack muttered before backing away in confusion, where was Gwen? Why was Suzie here?

Jack went back to his office, there was too much happening, he accessed the CCTV records of the hub and watched as his team went to work except Owen who had put his head back on his arms and moaned.

Jack looked through the retrospective records, and saw that the previous night he had entered his office and didn't come out until this morning as he left his office in his boxers and looking confused.

"Is there something wrong? You've been edgy all morning?" Tosh asked gently as she entered his office, she seemed more skittish than Jack remembered.

"Was there any rift activity last night?" Jack asked instead.

"You were monitoring the rift, you said that last night. But I can check the logs."

"Please."

Tosh scuttled off, it reminded him of how she was before, before she got close to Ianto and really started to come out of her shell.

Jack shook his head in exasperation, this was looking more and more likely to be time travel than an alien induced hallucination, just to be sure he checked the time and date on his vortex manipulator as well as the computer. Well according to them it was 2007, only a few weeks before Gwen joined and Suzie died.

Jack sighed and stood up, if it was the rift, he needed to know so to get out of the way for when the Captain Jack of the timeline returns, but it begged the question as to how did it happen and where was the other Jack? Jack didn't remember any impromptu trips taken or mysteries occurring at this time, well until Gwen turned up at least.

"Nothing." Tosh said ten minutes later after checking the rift data carefully.

"Absolutely nothing? Let me look." Jack gently pushed her aside and took control of her PDA and double checked everything, there was absolutely nothing there, not even a flicker or a murmur of rift energy.

"Hmmm." Jack murmured.

"What's wrong?" Tosh asked seeing how this was troubling him. "The equipment is working fine." She double checked the calibrations and readings.

Jack didn't reply.

"What's going on boss?" Owen asked sliding his chair over. Suzie had also ambled over in curiosity, even Ianto who had tried to disappear into the wall all morning had wandered over to join in.

"Nothing, its probably nothing." Jack back tracked and flipped over the flap of his manipulator and used it to detect any recent time travel.

There was nothing, he fingered the ageing leather and the slight tear on the hinge, it was his old leather strap, it was destroyed in the explosion that took apart the hub, Gwen and Rhys uncovered the vortex manipulator in the rubble but brought a new leather strap to encase the VM, Jack loved the new strap it was darker and newer, yet here he had the old one, like the explosion never occurred.

If he had travelled in time he would have his new strap, Jack frowned and stood up kicking everyone out of his office, before going into his room under his office, he went into the adjoining private bathroom and looked at his reflection, he pulled at the corners of his eyes and looked over his hair. He was younger, not much considering how he aged, it looked like the 2,000 years buried alive by his brother had not occurred, he couldn't find that errant grey hair that had plagued him to Ianto's amusement, the corners of his eyes were slightly smoother, the tell tale beginnings of crows feet were gone. His hair was a different style, in the slightly longer way he wore it before he had cut it shorter, the last he remembered was having it cut in an almost military cut wanting those reminders of his losses removed. Yet one day it seemed like to him and his hair was longer.

Jack took a deep breath and made a decision going out into the main hub he saw his team still gossiping, "I'll be back in a few minutes, back to work, and that does include you Owen, quit slacking."

Jack turned and hurried down to the archives when he got there he groaned out loud.

"Damn it." He muttered as he realised that at this stage Ianto had barely sorted a quarter of the archives, he was definitely in hell.

"Need a hand sir?" Ianto asked as he stepped neatly to Jack's side. Well maybe not hell….

"Yeah, sure." Jack said ignoring the innuendo that had flitted to mind instantly, he quickly told Ianto the basic description and number of something that fell through the rift about 30 years ago. He never told Torchwood what the device did since it was harmless but in his case it could be useful.

Within the hour Ianto had found the item, Jack grinned at Ianto thanking him and left for his office.

Jack locked the door behind him, the device that he found would detect any of the residual particles associated with any form of time travel within the past few years, either his vortex manipulator or any type there was, including via TARDIS. Jack took a deep breath and scanned himself.

The results showed that Jack had not done any time travel, which confirmed that he was in his younger body from this time period, meaning he had not travelled with the Doctor or John Hart when he took Jack back almost 2,000 years in time. Somehow Jack's memories had gone into his younger body, somehow. Jack redone the test a few times to check before checking that the device worked using several items that had slipped through the rift as well as the Doctor's hand and they all confirmed traces of travelling through time recently.

Jack had sat in his office for the majority of the day pondering the impact of this. There were reasons you weren't supposed to know your own future, just by changing some little things could impact the greater world to an extent that you could never understand, sure the universe was sturdy that it could take hits, but there were many things that were fundamental, vital even to the continued proliferation of the human race, by accidentally denying them this would be catastrophic. The Doctor himself admitted that Torchwood played an important part of the future of human civilisation.

"We want to know what's going on." Suzie demanded as she burst into Jack's office later that day, the rest of his team filing in after her. She stood with her eyebrows raised, her hands on her hips staring him down.

Jack sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "What makes you think there's something going on?"

"Come on, you've been acting weird all day, running around in your boxers, which maybe is not so strange, but that thing with the rift activity, then whatever artefact you wanted from the archives, then hiding away all day, your behaviour is suspect, and the way you've been staring at Ianto all day is getting weird. If you really just want to shag him get it over and done with and get back to normal." Owen burst out clearly having held it in all day.

Ianto stiffened at the implication that Owen made and refused to make eye contact with anyone. It didn't help that Jack had hugged him that morning.

Jack looked at Ianto carefully, he then turned to peruse the rest of his team.

"So, what makes you think it's suspicious?"

"You're not acting like our Jack, you're different, but the same." Suzie said.

Jack merely shrugged and grinned disarmingly.

"Come on Jack!" Suzie yelled.

"I don't have to tell you everything Suzie, I'm the boss here." Jack said quietly.

Suzie dropped her hands from her hips. "Fine, then as your friend, we want to know what has bothered you so much, you're hiding from us, you can barely interact with us, it's like you've seen us die or something." Suzie tried to laugh it off but she saw the knee jerk reaction that Jack had. His face lost a few shades of colour and his jaw set as his body sat up straighter in his chair, trying to control the emotional response evoked.

"What? What did I say?" Suzie asked grasping onto the response Jack accidentally had.

Jack sighed. "I didn't say anything."

"But."

"Come on Suzie, everything's fine, just had a bit of a weird morning alright. I'm all fine now. I'm always fine." Jack drawled winking at her as he set them all at peace and gently pushed them out of his office.

Jack started on some background research, he had two theories, one he was the subject of an alien influence, creating a realistic scenario from memories or his imagination, although he considered that memory was more likely since he was much happier once Ianto and he were in an established relationship, before Tosh and Owen died was the best times of his most recent years. His other theory was that he had travelled in time, but not his body, that his memories somehow intact travelled through time and were absorbed into his younger body with seemingly no side effects.

Both theories created problems and it was sketchy how he could determine which it was and how to deal with the situation and although Jack really tried to sort it out on his own he knew that the best thing was to contact the Doctor who was the foremost expert in the universe, but if this was an illusion would the Doctor also be an illusion?

Review please


	2. Plans and Cybermen

A/N: I don't own Torchwood or any of the characters.

Chapter Two: The Doctor.

Jack sat in his office considering the rest of his team, they were all as he could remember they were in this time, Tosh was crushing on Owen but hadn't reached the cynical possibility that he would never see her like she had once he had started sleeping with Gwen. Ianto tried as hard as he could to blend into the walls, like a chameleon butler, always there before he was needed to stave off any thoughts of where he might be. Owen was either drunk, about to get drunk or borderline depressed sober, it would be a few months until he got to a better state of mind. Suzie was just how he remembered her too, before they realised the extent of the gloves manipulation.

Jack had considered contacting the Doctor, but it was difficult to attempt to get the Time Lords attention, worse if it attracted the wrong incarnation of the Doctor, and Jack wasn't ready to induce possible paradox related incidences on this possible fabrication. On the other hand Jack could go through this time stream linearly again, but that begged the question of where was the original Captain Jack of this time? He definitely remembered this the first time round, so if this was simple time travel there should be two versions of Jack. There was a chance that maybe it was temporary.

After a week of living through the hallucination/fabrication of his imagination, all the while ready to disappear at a moment's notice if another Jack came through the cog door or down the invisible lift, Jack had resigned himself to some variation of time travel, although he never heard of something like this.

One of his first acts under this new assumption was to have a look at the partially converted Lisa Hallet in his basement, making sure that Ianto had left one night he observed her all night, and installed a security camera from the 42nd Century that he had been able to repair, it would keep an eye on her if she was pulling the wool over Ianto's eyes. Neither one of them would be able to see the camera in the poorly lit room and it would give Jack extra peace of mind.

A week after that Jack deduced that maybe Lisa Hallet had control over her own mind, for now at the very least. So with that in mind Jack scoured the archives one night after Ianto disappeared, either home or to Lisa, with a particular object in mind. Once he found the item he took it up to his office and spent the next few hours repairing and readjusting it until it suited his purpose.

Jack had started small enquiries into little things concerning his team, things they had accused him before of neglecting, mainly it was Ianto, so Jack gave Ianto a very memorable gun training session, Jack was thrilled to have his Welshman so close but it tore at his immortal heart that he couldn't have him as close as he wanted. Jack instead savoured the moments he could grasp and grinned internally as Ianto grew more and more frustrated and turned on by Jacks closeness but stubbornly stayed on the training and used the distraction to refine his accuracy.

Jack mainly trained Ianto citing it was for 'back up emergencies' and if someone was incapable of going out in the field, Ianto had secretly thrilled at the additional training, feeling more like the team whilst simultaneously feeling like he was betraying them worse than before, especially since Jack started treating him like a friend.

Jack was hoping to offer Ianto the chance to admit things about Lisa, where before Ianto claimed that they never cared at all about Ianto which was why he never told them, but here Jack was getting to know him all over again, trying to be a friend first, offering him that chance but Ianto never took it.

Suzie on the other hand was a tough cookie to crack. Jack never realised how paranoid the woman was, he tried the subtle approach first planting doubts into the glove research all the while keeping his eyes open for any signs of the murder spree starting. It was tough trying to deal with both Lisa and Suzie at the same time and sincerely hoped nothing went wrong.

A few weeks after Jack woke up in the past he found a good chance to see Lisa again, Ianto had left the hub with the others and Jack induced a semi lock down, basically no one could enter without Jacks admission, giving him ample opportunity to visit the cyberwoman.

Jack had a box in his hands, with a torch resting on top, just in case. His webley was also strapped to him in its holster, just in case.

Jack placed the box on the floor outside the room, unlocked the door and eased his way inside, Lisa appeared to be sleeping so he picked the box up again and moved inside the room.

"Ianto?" Lisa murmured her voice heavy with sleep, or drug induced weariness.

"No, I'm Captain Jack Harkness, Leader of Torchwood Three." He said with authority but gently, stepping to her side.

"Where's Ianto? What?..." Lisa sounded shocked and worried.

"Don't worry, he's fine, he doesn't know I'm here." Jack admitted.

"Don't hurt him, he's just trying to help me." Lisa begged.

Jack cocked his head to one side contemplating Lisa. "What do you get out of it?"

"Of what?"

"Ianto helping you to get in here."

"I just want to get better and leave this place, please don't kill me."

"Why would you assume that." Jack asked.

"Ianto said that you were really insistent on destroying any cybers after the battle, he heard you speaking to UNIT." She admitted.

"True, what makes you the exception?"

"I'm not fully converted, it was different." She pleaded. "Right?" She asked as an after thought.

"Admittedly they didn't do full body conversions," Jack said looking down her where the metal components formed an exoskeleton only bare flesh showing was her face, stomach and lines down her legs and arms. Now that she not a threat and immobile, Jack had the opportunity to actually study her to see what happened.

"So you can cure me?" Lisa said hopefully, relief tinged in her words.

"I didn't say that." Jack said sadly.

"But."

"The best I can do is scan you, see what conversion level you are at, and if things are stable I can try and contact someone to reverse this, but if he can't do it no one can."

"Dr Tanisaki?"

"No, he's a human cybernetics expert. I'm talking about the Doctor."

"He was at Canary Wharf." Lisa said solemnly.

"Yes, he was. He lost a good friend there."

"I lost everything," She said viciously. "Except for Ianto, I'd be dead if not for Ianto." She added softly. "Everyone I knew is dead."

Jack nodded. "That's the best offer I can give you, if there is any hint of the cyber affecting your brain I'm afraid that there is no way back,"

"You would kill me?" Lisa asked in fear.

"To save the entire world I've killed a child." Jack said sadly thinking of Steven.

Lisa seemed to understand his reticent. "You make the decision no one else can make."

"To save millions of lives yes, its not something I can live with but I don't really have an option about that." Jack muttered self depreciatingly. He got out the machine he attuned for this purpose out of the box and set it up. He spent the next hour questioning Lisa on various topics and things until she grew tired and fell asleep.

Jack returned the box to the special archives where no one would find it, Ianto knew the codes for the special archives but he would never browse through all the boxes in there. Jack downloaded the results onto his personal hard drive first in order to analyse the data he collected.

The next morning Suzie called Jack early saying there had been a vicious murder down in Bute town and she wanted to test the glove, she had been asking for ages to have a 'fresher' person to test it on since the ones in the morgue were touch and go, Suzie claimed that he had agreed to it weeks before and he had been dragging his heels in to stop her, but Jack decided that maybe he could use this as a legitimate cause to take the glove away for good.

The team met and travelled to Bute town and Suzie immediately started to pull the glove out.

"So I talk to them? What do I say?" Owen asked, Tosh had commandeered the video camera and Jack said he'd 'supervise' leaving Owen to ask the victim questions.

"I don't know, ask if they saw anything about their murder or something." Tosh suggested.

Three minutes later and the team were back in the SUV.

"Bloody waste of time, just kept screaming for an ambulance." Owen grumbled as he put his seatbelt in.

"Maybe next time we tell them they are dead." Suzie said.

"That's really going to improve things." Owen bit back immediately causing the two of them to start sniping at each other whilst Jack sighed and took off for the hub.

"The experiments are stopping." Jack said once they were in the boardroom and all had a cup of coffee off Ianto. The Glove and the Knife were sitting in the middle of the table and everyone had cast a nervous look at it at some point.

"What? No!" Suzie cried out. "Think of the things it can do."

"Bringing some poor sod back to life for a minute or two isn't my idea of saving the Earth." Owen told her.

"But if we can refine the technique we could bring back the dead."

"For how long?" Jack asked.

"What?"

"How long would they be brought back for? Would their bodies stop decaying? Would they actually continue to live normally until they die another way?" Jack questioned her. "What if it brought someone back indefinitely."

"Well that's good right. And those questions we can determine by more experiments." Suzie argued.

"Live forever? Not as fun as it may sound." Jack said trying to keep the bitterness out.

"Isn't that making us gods?" Ianto asked. "By controlling who dies?"

Jack slammed his hand on the desk in agreement. "Exactly, what right do we have to bring people back from the dead?"

"Who wants to die?" Suzie half laughed. "It's something good from the rift Jack, something to help people, what if it was a child, someone who hasn't lived."

Jack leaned back and considered her plea. "Suzie, there's probably a very good reason that the glove was thrown away, and the latest tests show that the knife is connected to the glove, what does that tell you. Forget that it can bring the dead back, think that a murder weapon is connected to the glove."

"What you mean, what would happen by using the glove and knife together?" Suzie said curiously.

"Exactly, do you know what I think." Jack asked her seeing her nod hesitantly. "I think that this knife was created by someone, most likely someone powerful but mortal, it was a defense from death. If that person who created the glove died the knife and glove used in conjunction could raise them back to their previous healthy state."

"That's what I'm saying Jack. It's a good thing." Suzie latched onto that positive merit.

"But would it only work on someone who had been in contact with the glove or knife, or both." Tosh added.

"And what would happen to the person who used the glove?" Ianto asked. "The power to bring them back must come from somewhere."

"What are you getting at?" Jack encouraged.

"Well like you said, the glove and knife are connected, we've recorded from that incident earlier that there is a power transfer from the wearer of the glove to the 'patient' if you will. That power must be channelled through the glove to revive them for that minute."

"You mean that minute seems inconsequential to the wearer in terms of power loss. How do you feel Suzie honestly?" Jack asked.

"I'm fine."

"You've eaten three biscuits, and put extra sugar in your coffee, and your hands are still shaking. You've got low blood sugar." Ianto observed, saying it very quietly.

"Well observed." Jack praised. "It's taken energy from you. Any more than minutes, who knows."

"What if it was a transfer?" Tosh asked slowly. "Like replacing."

"Replacing what?" Owen asked.

"Like we've said, there's an energy transfer, what if the person that created it wanted to restore full health in the subject, the power has to come from somewhere, what if it's a trade. The wearer of the glove gives their live in exchange for the one they want to raise." Tosh said in horror.

Jack wanted to grin that they figured it out without him. Instead he frowned as if in thought. "A very good assumption Tosh, and it fits in with the power exchange that happens, and it definitely fits in with whomever must have created it."

"So whomever threw it away, either it was used and they were disgusted by the event, or it was used and chucked away or stored until it was needed next." Ianto said logically.

"Very sound." Jack agreed.

"But that's the thing sir, gloves come in pairs."

"So what does the other glove do?" Tosh continued.

Jack observed his team with pride, Ianto was obviously very involved in this project and had thoughts he must really want to share to join in this level of communication within the group.

"Either the same thing, or something similar?" Owen suggested.

"We can't know since the other glove isn't here."

"Maybe they both did the same thing but only one got chucked away?" Tosh said.

"You mean I could have given my life in exchange for someone whos dead?" Suzie asked in horror.

"There must be a level of control involved, maybe conscious thought on one end for this to happen, or maybe." Jack frowned as he thought over how Gwen managed to raise Suzie. "Maybe its more than power or energy. None of us except Suzie was able to get the glove to work."

"You sort of did." Suzie said.

"Yes, but not quite."

"Ianto never even tried." Owen brought up.

"I think it's too dangerous to continue with, I'm going to put it in the secure archives."

Suzie looked like she wanted to argue.

"Come on Suzie let's see if tea boy was right about your blood sugar." Owen lightly grasped Suzies arm and lifted her to her feet and led her down to the med bay.

Tosh followed them out leaving Ianto and Jack there.

"Can you get me a secure archives box please Ianto."

"Of course sir. It's on your desk."

"You knew I'd do that."

"I thought you might." Ianto confirmed. "Do you really think there's another element to it."

"It wouldn't surprise me, emotion is a powerful tool and a lot of species manipulate it to their needs." Jack said as he stood up and took the glove and knife down to his office to put in the secure archives.

Review please.


	3. The Doctor

A/N: I do not own Torchwood or any of the characters or make money from these stories.

Chapter Three: The Doctor.

To contact the Doctor was tricky, which was why it took him 140 years to find him the first time round, not only did he travel through space and time there were timelines to consider, getting the right incarnation was vital and getting him here at the right time was even worse. So Jack poured through all the records they had of the Doctor and eventually found the phone number for the TARDIS that Winston Churchill had, the records from those times indicated that it was a later incarnation of the Doctor than the one that Jack had met and his best hope.

"Hello, this is the TARDIS." A cheerful but awkward female voice answered hesitantly.

"Hello, this is a friend of the Doctor, I need some help."

Jack grinned as he heard the woman relay the information.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Jack quoted with a grin.

"What?" She asked.

"Just tell him that, or get him on the phone."

"He says you can't be Rose because you're a man and not on Petes world, wherever that is."

"Hmm, okay ask if he's heard a voice of a nightingale recently. If he still cant remember me then, I'll have to ask what he looks like." Jack smiled.

"Okay." The woman told the other man it then there was a fumbling noise.

"Jack is that you?" A happy but strange voice asked.

"Know any other gorgeous Captains with your phone number?" Jack grinned.

"You shouldn't have this phone number."

"Well you should give me your number so I don't have to track it down,"

"Well what's the problem then Jack." The Doctor asked grinning happily.

"Why don't you stop over here, trace the call back to the timestamp." Jack advised.

"I can drive the TARDIS you know." He grumbled good naturedly but Jack could hear a few levers being pulled.

"I've always disputed that." Jack grinned. "I'll see you soon, or hopefully in the next few weeks at least." Jack teased before hanging up.

Likely just to prove Jack wrong the TARDIS materialised in the hub moments later as Jack was stepping out of his office, the rest of the team immediately took to arms over the intrusion, whilst Jack leant against his door jam with a grin.

Two men and a red headed girl stepped out of the TARDIS.

"That was 8.6 seconds by my calculation." Jack smirked as he looked at his vortex manipulator. "Stand down." He said to the others before ambling over.

"Well, had to give you a few seconds, not to be rude and all." The young looking Time Lord said straightening his bowtie.

"And look at you. Accusing me of having work done." Jack grinned as he looking at the Time Lord, he looked over the other two, both pretty cute. "You look 12 years old!"

The girl travelling with the Doctor laughed out loud, she had said that once or twice herself.

"Ha, well I have an excuse, whats yours." The Doctor retorted. "Wow, not actually been in here before, nice place." The Doctor took off then, flitting around the hub circling the rift manipulator in the centre of the hub and touching everything on Tosh and Suzie's desks with interest. The Doctor completely ignored the suspicious looks from Jack team before he finally realised to be polite.

"Don't you remember me? Oh right new face. Hello I'm the Doctor." He grinned and waved at them brightly. "So nice to see you again Toshiko, Ianto." He nodded at them.

"I'm sorry we've never met." Tosh said.

"Yes, new face, new rules, remember the space pig?"

"Yes, wow." Tosh said checking out the completely different man standing in front of her.

"Space pig?" The red head asked the Doctor.

"Just an old Slitheen trick. Now introductions, Captain Jack Harkness Leader of Torchwood Three, Ianto Jones head archivist, Toshiko Sato technological genius, Doctor Owen Harper Medical Officer, and I'll beg your pardon but I don't believe we've met." The Doctor said to Suzie.

"This is Suzie Costello, my second in command and weapons expert." Jack interrupted smoothly.

"Ah, pleasure to meet you Miss Costello, this is Amelia"

"Amy" She interrupted with a glare.

"Amelia Pond and her husband Rory Pond."

"Rory Williams, thank you Doctor." He glared.

"Right, Mr and Mrs Pond." The Doctor said pointedly at Jack.

"Well actually Mr and Mrs Williams." Rory said.

The Doctor looked at Rory. "No, its Pond." He said with a smile.

"Yeah, yes it is." Rory agreed with a quirky smile.

"My boys!" Amy proclaimed happily.

"So the happily married newleyweds." The Doctor said a hand on each of their shoulders.

"Yes, I got the message the first time around." Jack grinned, he stepped over to them, "It's my pleasure to meet you." He said saucily as he smiled and took Amy's hand delicately and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand before repeated the looks at her husband and shaking his hand.

"Did he just flirt with the both of us?" Rory asked his wife quietly who nodded whilst the Doctor merely rolled his eyes.

The Doctor grinned at Jack. "It's good to see you again."

"You too." Jack smiled and wrapped his old friend in an exuberant hug.

"Ten quid they were lovers." Owen muttered to Tosh who shrugged and disagreed so took the bet.

Ianto overheard and stepped closer. "I'll take that bet, but I think Jack's kissed him but that's it."

Owen sniggered and accepted the bet.

"So what is the problem here Jack?" The Doctor said clapping his hands together.

"Hang on a second, we should take this into my office, Ianto if you could give Amy and Rory the tour the rest of you carry on." Jack said motioning the Doctor into his office whilst Ianto took Amy and Rory off, slightly surprised that he was being singled out as well as confused that the Doctor knew him by name even though they had both been at Canary Wharf at the same battle but they never crossed paths.

Jack took the Doctor into his office and started to tell him what happened recently.

"So who is this Doctor guy?" Suzie asked.

"Dunno really, I think he's mentioned in the Torchwood Charter, or something I remember Jack saying." Owen said as he sipped their coffee once Ianto finished with the brief tour.

"The Doctor was stated by Queen Victoria to be the enemy of the state." Ianto said. "It is in the founding charter, Torchwood was to apprehend the Doctor if we ever ran into him again."

Amy and Rory shared a nervous glance.

"Yeah but Jacks not like One." Owen scoffed.

"I was at One." Ianto rolled his eyes.

"But you're one of us now." Owen said without hesitation. "Besides Jack pulled away from One when he got control of Three here." Owen said to appease the two visitors. "And it looks like they were friends."

Ianto was slightly startled that he was considered one of them, especially coming from Owen and felt rather touched followed by a bout of guilt over his betrayal, once more he considered telling Jack about Lisa.

"Hmm."

"The Doctor was at Canary Wharf, wasn't he?" Suzie asked, sounding slightly hesitant to bring up a sore point but curiosity over ruling it.

"Yes he was. Hartman 'arrested' him." Ianto said shortly emphasising the arrest to which everyone sniggered. "More likely she greeted him from the TARDIS with a squad of armed field agents then applauded the man like he was a celebrity, gave him the guided tour and he took over her office and then Torchwood when everything went to hell. Apparently he saved the world."

"You don't think he did?" Amy asked.

"Over 800 people died, people I saw every day, so my view is a little skewed." Ianto said bitterly, thinking again of Lisa in the basement.

"Yeah, cybermen and Daleks." Owen shuddered.

"We've met them, Cybermen and the Daleks." Amy said enthusiastic that they had a common thread.

"If I recall the Cyberman tried to eat you." Rory said in a disgusted voice.

"No, not eat, replace its organic components with fresh….meat." Amy floundered. "And then you, my centurion rescued me." She grinned at Rory holding onto his arm.

"Well imagine that on a larger scale, over 400 staff members were converted." Owen said remembering the statistics. "The rest either killed by the cybermen or the daleks, a few died from complications of an attempted conversion or died when the conversion was halted part way."

"They started upgrading whole bodies, not just the brain." Ianto whispered.

"Yeah, saw one or two, freaked me out," Owen shuddered once more.

"Well the Doctor saved the day right, so." Amy said quietly not liking the way their tour guide had gone really pale.

Jack and the Doctor had left Jacks office and made their way to where everyone was congregated.

"Ah, is there…" Jack stopped as he saw Ianto turn to pick up a cup of coffee. "Ah, magic. Thank you,"

"Tea? Or Coffee Doctor?" Ianto asked politely.

"Erm, tea would be nice. Haven't had the same taste for it since I saw you last Jack or will see you," The Doctor shrugged grinning at the time confusion.

"Should have been British, that's what Rose said." Jack smiled.

"Ah, yes, yes, she did say that, she got me hooked, that and chips." The Doctor smiled back.

"Who's Rose?" Rory asked.

"Rose and I used to travel with the Doctor, such a long time ago, if I recall correctly we met in the London Blitz."

"Like you could forget that." The Doctor smirked. "Running away from a four year old in a gasmask." He chuckled.

"Are you my mummy?" Jack whispered in a creepy tone.

"It's not funny if people don't understand the reference." The Doctor shook his head, remembering when he tried that line on UNIT generals.

Jack laughed looking the Doctor up and down once more. "Well at least you were taller back then. And have to say the regeneration before this was gorgeous."

The Doctor merely rolled his eyes lightly ignoring the banter, making the Torchwood team agree that he must know Jack well to be used to his usual banter.

"We went to the London Blitz as well, we were in the Cabinet War rooms." Amy said thinking of their visit to Churchill.

"Yes, that's how I got the number, from Churchill." Jack told them.

"Wait, so you used to travel with the Doctor, who according to Ianto Torchwood was created to find?" Suzie asked.

"Yes I used to travel with the Doctor. Yes, technically the Institute was set up to find the Doctor, but I don't want to arrest him, although, maybe, are you into bondage?" Jack asked the Doctor who glared at him. "That's a no then. Torchwood fights alien incursions, monitors the rift, and the Doctor here swans in when it's a catastrophe and gets all the glory."

The Doctor merely smiled lightly but didn't say anything.

"So erm, we were thinking." Owen started a few moments later, feeling slightly awkward.

"Hmm?" Jack said focusing on Owen.

"What Owen is trying to ask is what is it between in you and the Doctor?" Tosh continued.

"Well…" Jack grinned and drawled.

"We travelled together." The Doctor said innocently.

"You know you're ridiculously naïve for someone that's 900 years old." Jack told the Doctor.

"You're ridiculously sexual for a man your age." The Doctor retorted with a smirk.

"He's what mid 30's?" Suzie asked looking at Jack, she was going to say mid to late 30's but left it out for Jacks ego.

"That's why I love her." Jack grinned.

The Doctor grinned seeing his deflection.

"What Owen and Tosh are tiptoeing around is that they have a bet going on what has happened between the Doctor and you." Ianto continued. "They want to know if you've slept together."

Jack grinned leaning back and not answering.

"What? Huh, uh!" The Doctor stammered going red.

Jack chuckled.

"No, nothing, absolutely nothing at all." The Doctor refused outright.

"I'm offended." Jack mock pouted.

"I win!" Tosh said with glee.

"Well." Jack drawled with happiness. "We have kissed."

"What?" Amy asked in shock.

"No, technically you kissed me." The Doctor corrected.

"You didn't stop me." Jack grinned.

"But you kissed Rose as well."

"She definitely didn't stop me." He grinned.

"So you've only ever kissed?"

"Wasn't a kiss, more like a peck, it was a goodbye." The Doctor protested.

Jack just shrugged.

"So, you've kissed and nothing more?" Ianto asked with a smirk.

"Yes," Jack said whilst the Doctor merely grumbled in agreement.

"I win then." Ianto grinned holding a hand out to Owen and Tosh.

They both nodded in agreement, Owen grumbled whilst Tosh grinned happy for him.

"How did you guess?" Jack asked in amusement.

Ianto just shrugged.

Myfanwy took that moment to soar above their heads cawing loudly as she down a few loops of the manipulator that run up the centre of the hub.

"Is that a pterodactyl?" The Doctor asked amazed as they all watched her.

The Torchwood team were so used to Myfanwy that none of them made much response to her flight but looked up at her when they saw their guests so enamoured by her.

"Well theres a debate whether shes a Pterodactyl or a Pteradon." Jack shrugged.

"Wow, amazing, how did she get here? Aren't they supposed to be exinct?" Amy asked.

"She fell through the rift here, young Mr Jones here used Myfanwy as a bargaining trick to get hired." Jack recollected with an amused grin. Ianto looked slightly embarrassed.

"Really?"

"Yeah, the stalking wasn't really working for him." Jack added with a grin.

"I'd have thought a good looking young man like this stalking you was a dream come true." The Doctor asked.

Jack rolled his eyes at his old friend. "Yes, well, normally it is. He failed to mention coming from Torchwood One in our first meeting so when I checked out who he was I saw that."

The Doctor laughed slightly. "Go on, I can tell there's more to the story."

"I came across him fighting with a Weevil, although at one point I thought I had better leave the two of you alone, you were rather frisky with her sir." Ianto said with a smile. "Then she bit him in the neck."

"And Ianto here came to my rescue by hitting it with a tree branch he found, voila helped me deal with a weevil."

"So Weevil and a Pteradactly gets you a job here."

"Oh no." Jack grinned. "So day one, help with Janet the Weevil."

"Janet."

"You can meet her later. So day two Ianto tries his next trick, coffee, which I'd admit if he didn't say the magic words Torchwood London who knows what would have happened." Jack said with a slight leer.

Owen laughed. "Typical."

"Day Three however." Ianto interrupted. "I stopped Jack in his SUV."

"By standing in the middle of the road."

"He jumps out starts yelling at me for stalking him, that he wanted me out of the city by sunrise not letting me get a word in edgeways. He then tells me to get out of the road else he'd drive through me when I mention Myfanwy."

"He insults my organisational skills, tells me T1 would have dinosaur nets in their SUVs then as we're making a go for the dinosaur he's still pitching for his job. He did sound rather upset that I was more willing to take her in than him."

Ianto nodded. "We catch Myfanwy, and a got the job."

"He had a good trick with chocolate for her now shes mad for it."

Ianto turned from the group and went to the cupboard and brought out some chocolate.

"Where was that?" Owen asked "I was looking for some earlier."

"I've had to hide them. And I've told you to stop going through the cupboards." Ianto retorted.

Ianto went out on the main hub floor with the others trailing behind him, he waved the chocolate at Myfanwy and called her down. She obviously knew what it was because she landed a few feet away and started edging and walking towards him, her wings slightly closed to her sides.

Ianto muttered in Welsh to the dinosaur and opened the chocolate wrapper throwing her a chunk.

"I thought the TARDIS is supposed to translate everything?" Jack asked suddenly, "I heard Welsh."

"Hmm interesting."

Ianto said some more things to Myfanwy in welsh.

"See that's sort of a blur between the two."

"I don't think the TARDIS can make up her mind, it happened when I took Donna to Pompey, she spoke Italian to the locals, well kind of tried, and they thought she was speaking celtic, Is Ianto bilingual?"

"Yes, my grandparents insisted on learning Welsh, used to irritate me, now however I like it." Ianto said.

"Because you can curse someone in another language and they don't know what you're saying?" Rory guessed.

Ianto turned at looked at the medic with a wry smile on his face.

"Damn it, hes always muttering in Welsh around me." Owen cursed.

Jack grinned. "I think its sexy."

The Doctor glared at Jack. "Isn't that workplace harassment?" He added.

"Ha, use that to stop him pestering you Ianto." Suzie giggled.

"I don't pester him. Do I?" He added the latter after a moments thought.

Ianto shrugged. "Nothing I can't handle sir."

Jack opened his mouth, his eyes twinkling at the response he had forming when the Doctor jabbed him in the ribs.

"I've accepted that flirting and such is an integral part of your genetic make-up Jack."

"Is that why you gave me that guys name?" Jack interrupted. "Alonso,"

"Yes, I've always wanted to say Allonsy Alonso, and I met someone with that name, made my day. Well it was a really bad day." The Doctor grinned then sighed. "But yes, it was a kind of message that what I said to you when you were in that radiation room, you know in the year 100 trillion, I didn't mean it, it was just a slip of the tongue that regeneration was sort of emotionally volatile. Not that I'm much better now but I don't like not knowing something and well you break all the rules."

"Rules are made to be broken." Jack said half heartedly ignoring his teams inquisitive looks.

"So, nice guy Alonso?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah, we talked about a lot. Got the story of how he met you as well."

"Is that what you kids are calling it these days? Talking?" The Doctor grinned.

Jack grimaced. "I didn't sleep with him, if that's what you are asking. If you'd given me more than ten seconds of your time you could have guessed that I wasn't in the mood."

"Yes I did think you looked rather, erm, glum. I couldn't believe that you had left Earth. Is that after well you know." The Doctor asked glossing over Ianto's death.

"Yes, couldn't stay. Didn't do much help out there either." Jack shrugged.

"Well, doesn't matter now then eh?" The Doctor grinned.

Jack rolled his eyes again. "I'll tell you what I've had to tell Martha and Tish."

The Doctor grimaced at the reminder that he knew was coming.

"Even though it didn't 'happen' I can still remember it all."

The Doctor nodded solomnly. "Point taken."

Jack shrugged once more.

"Lucky man." The Doctor whispered at the level of affection Jack had towards Ianto and smiled at Jack before going towards the neglected Myfanwy, pulling some chocolate out of his pocket and feeding her.

"Can I feed her?" Amy asked seeing that they needed a distraction.

Ianto nodded and pulled her towards him handing her some to throw at the dinosaur.

"Right, well Jack if everythings alright here I'll take Pond and Rory out, meet you at dinner?" The Doctor said after Myfanwy was suitably treated.

"Yes, you've been to Cardiff before so you know you're way around. Don't take them to the restaurant that we went to with Rose and Mickey though, its gone downhill." Jack advised. "And meet you at 7."

"See you later Jack." The Doctor clapped Jack on the shoulder. "Should you let me out or shall I see if I can get out myself?" He brandished his sonic screwdriver.

Jack chuckled. "Well you like a challenge and you could probably do it quite easily so knock yourself out. I won't make things hard for you and initiate lock down."

"I'll ignore the lift, too easy. Come along." The Doctor gave a general wave and led the way to the cog door where he opened it within seconds.

"What now?"

"Carry on everyone." Jack ordered.

Jack and the Doctor in Jack's office had discussed the event in detail, and the Doctor was going out in Cardiff to see if there was any anomalous readings over the city that could explain it as well as looking closer at the rift, he had nipped into the TARDIS and asked her to do detailed scans on the rift activity as well as investigate what could have caused what happened to Jack.

Jack and the Doctor would meet up later and go over their theories and ideas, the Doctor had already several times gone over the 'time must be preserved' speech which Jack already knew since he was in the Time Agency, it was however incredibly enticing to use this as a second chance since all his friends were alive and well around him.

Review please.


	4. The Doctor and Cyberwoman

A/N: I do not own Torchwood or any of the characters or make money from these stories.

Chapter Four: The Doctor and the Cyberwoman.

That evening Jack and his whole Torchwood team met the Doctor and his companions at a restaurant not far from the hub for dinner together.

The Doctor had not yet gone to the TARDIS to go over any information so the meal was 'work-free' instead regaling each other with stories and anecdotes, the Doctor and Jack trying to outdo each other.

"So what have you found?" Jack asked. He had just driven his team home since they had been drinking with dinner whilst he stuck to water knowing that he would be working with the Doctor as well as rift watching that night. Amy and Rory had gone into their room in the TARDIS and left the two men alone.

"Its strange, the TARDIS and I both concur that there is no problems with the rift that we can detect, nor with yourself in fact there seems to be no logical reason I can see at this moment for this to happen." The Doctor fumbled.

"So…"

"I really honestly cannot tell you why this has happened." The Doctor shrugged. "It appears that your memories have been absorbed or transported into your younger body, so there's no point taking you back to 2010 because you are here. There was no physical replacement of your body, this is the strangest thing that I've encountered." The Doctor seemed utterly thrilled with the mystery.

"Right." Jack said, disappointed by the lack of closure.

"It's definitely for the best to maintain the history you remember, try not to change things." The Doctor reiterated.

"But what if I can change things for the better, same outcome but better."

"We have no idea what that could cause."

"You do." Jack accused. "You can see timelines or whatever."

The Doctor shrugged uncomfortably. "You are repeating a part of your life, I would advise you to take that amnesia pill you have and wipe those memories."

"What if this is some dodgy cycle that I repeat, and each time I take retcon forget everything then repeat the years where I watch Suzie kill herself after alien tech manipulates her, Owen dies then dies again feeling every second of his existence being ripped away by radiation exposure to save the rest of Cardiff and Wales, don't forget Tosh who got shot then used her last moments to save the city and attempt to save Owen." Jack responded angrily. "And Ianto." His voice faltered. "Ianto died in my arms, poisoned from alien gas trying to save millions of children, but you weren't there to help the one time we seriously needed you, he died saving the children from being used in intergalactic drug trade including his niece and nephew. I love him and I've only ever disappointed him, I couldn't even give him what he wanted as he was dying, and get this my grandson." His voice faltered again as the emotion overtook him. "My grandson, who trusted me, was the only child nearby for the only plan we had, he died Doctor. I killed my own grandson, and you expect me to forget this and do it all over again. No I will not, you can't expect me to." Jack turned away from him, running a hand through his hair.

"You can't change time like this. You could make things worse." The Doctor said to his back.

"I know that!" Jack yelled, he sighed and took a deep breath to calm down. "Small things okay, I don't want them to suffer as much alright."

"You'll have to be smart, I mean it, and be careful try not to change much alright." The Doctor relented after a few seconds.

"There's something kind of big that I want you to have a look at first," Jack hesitated.

"What?"

Jack told the Doctor about Lisa in the basement and showed her the data he had already gathered about her.

"What happened the last time, how did you find out?" The Doctor asked as he reviewed the notes.

"Ianto brought in a cybernetics professor into the hub, Ianto said they disconnected her respirator and she was able to walk after that, but she tried to upgrade the Professor once back in with her unit, then tried to kill the team."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" The Doctor said.

Jack nodded. "I think that taking her off the respirator and her falling into cardiac arrest caused the cyber implants to activate if they hadn't already been active, she killed two people and myself and hurt Ianto, nearly killed him. It really hurt him for a long time, he felt guilty for what she did as well."

"But you love Ianto." The Doctor asked for clarification and saw Jack nod. "But you want to save his girlfriend?"

Jack sighed. "She can give him what he wants, what he deserves, he loved her until he died, I don't know." He shrugged.

"Right, well we don't know anything until we have a look, are we going to include Ianto in this?"

"Might be for the best, he might not accept it otherwise." Jack agreed.

Early the next morning the Doctor moved the TARDIS down into the basement area of the hub and as soon as Ianto arrived Jack asked him to follow him and took him downstairs.

Ianto grew more and more nervous as they descended down into the bowels of the hub, he grew even more nervous when he realised that they were heading towards Lisa's room, there was nothing else in this part of the hub.

"What's going on sir?" Ianto asked hoping he didn't sound as nervous as he felt.

Jack didn't respond for a moment. "We're meeting the Doctor down here, he parked the TARDIS in one of the empty rooms. Ah here he is."

They rounded a corner and saw the Doctor leaning against the wall waiting for them, Ianto had a terrible thought that the TARDIS might have gone into Lisa's room, what would happen if they landed on her?

"There you are." The Doctor smiled as he straightened up pulling the sleeve on his jacket down.

"Here we are." Jack said spreading his hands out in show before continuing past the Doctor.

Ianto kept silent and his worst fears were confirmed when they drew up to Lisa's room. Jack turned to Ianto as they stood outside the door.

"I know what you have hidden in here Ianto." He said softly, almost seeming like he had concern in his eyes.

Ianto tried not to fidget or let on that he knew what Jack meant.

Jack turned and unlocked the door motioning for the Doctor to go first.

The Doctor ducked inbetween Ianto and Jack and went inside. Jack stood between Ianto and the door and fixed him with an intense stare. "I wanted you to tell me."

"I wanted to tell you sir, but, I couldn't risk it. I was, I am nobody to all of you, you wouldn't have helped me." Ianto said sadly.

"I would have tried." Jack insisted.

"The last few days, few weeks I can see that I believe that but sir, I couldn't take that risk. I love her." Ianto insisted not backing down.

"I know, come on." Jack seemed satisfied with his answer and so led the way into Lisa's room. The Doctor was crouching by the circuit boards of her unit before standing up to look at her respirator and drug delivery.

"Lisa, I brought someone you know." Jack crooned as he stepped away from Ianto and towards the immobile woman.

Lisa's eyes flickered open and saw Jack standing close as well as Ianto over by the door as if unsure where he stood.

"Lisa, I also brought the Doctor with me, he's going to have a look at you and see what we can do." Jack told her softly.

Lisa nodded and smiled happily. "Ianto?"

"I may have just sprung this on him so he may be a bit in shock." Jack grinned looking back at Ianto.

Jack squeezed Lisa's hand and moved closer to Ianto.

"The Doctor is going to try and help her." Jack said quietly to Ianto. "Know that if he can't help her, no one can."

Ianto looked at Jack and saw how serious he was. He nodded in agreement and moved closer to Lisa.

"So Doc?" Jack prompted.

The Doctor was scanning Lisa with his sonic screwdriver and another device he dug out.

"Well?"

The Doctor was frowning. "Come here Jack."

Jack frowned and went over to the Doctor.

"There's 60% of her body converted." He started "Respiration, hearing, but her senses are still human that's why she can feel the pain. The more pressing part is that there are cybernetic implants in her brain."

"But that means…" Ianto stuttered.

"I can't tell if they are active or not, from the information Jack has gathered…"

"What?" Ianto interrupted.

"Just questions, like a lie detector." Lisa muttered.

"Nothing invasive." Jack promised.

"The problem isn't that there are cyber implants, its where it is that's the problem." The Doctor continued.

"Emotive areas." Jack said in a dead voice.

"Yes, fully integrated but I don't think completely active." The Doctor said mirroring Jacks tone.

"What does that mean?" Lisa asked.

The Doctor moved so he stood in front of her. "It means that the emotive portion of your brain has been compromised, it's the first thing that a cyberman eliminates because emotions are one of the biggest problems in a human, the results that Jack got indicate an almost normal emotive range, but there was a few blips."

"But that's okay right."

"No, you tried to mimic the emotions to how your memories tell you how to react, suggesting there is a strong cyber influence but too subtle for you or I to see right now."

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked in tears.

"Lisa, it means that there might not be a cure." The Doctor said.

Lisa nodded faintly, more tears falling down her face, she turned slightly away for some dignity at the three men observing her.

"But we can try right." Ianto almost begged.

Jack looked between the Doctor and Ianto, he hung his head in shame, he probably made things worse.

"I'm sorry Ianto, I'd like to double check the invasion into Lisa's brain, but I need a few things from my ship, I'll be back." The Doctor darted away.

Jack moved away reeling in shock.

"We could still try Dr Tanisaki?" Ianto hoped talking with Lisa.

"The Doctor is the foremost expert in the universe, he's been there when cybermen were created and then rebelled."

"He had something to do with it?" Lisa asked in shock.

"No, no he was just there tried to stop it in fact." Jack sighed running a hand through his hair. "He's mentioned the cyber wars of the future, I've heard of them too. If he can't help Lisa no one can."

"But he can try, if part of her brain is damaged isn't that the same effect as a car crash or something." Ianto asked. Lisa nodded in agreement not liking that they were discussing her brain damage.

"To an extent, but it's the cyber implants." Jack reiterated. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Lisa blinked back tears, trying to stay strong for Ianto who looked heart broken.

The Doctor darted back moments later holding another device which he used to scan Lisa's brain.

"Okay." The Doctor said, he sighed and his jaw set, he took a few steps closer and took her hand gently. "Lisa, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. There's nothing that I can do."

"But…" Lisa's face fell.

"The cyber implants in your brain are active but dormant, it means that any attempt to remove it will activate it. If there is any attempt to remove any of your cybernetic implants, such as removing you from the respirator will active any dormant implants. You'll cease to be Lisa then, you'll be a cyberman intent on using this base as a place to start the upgrading of the human race. The cyber parts of you will kill people. Ianto included." The Doctor told her passionately, he hated bad news and she seemed so sincere and kind.

Lisa nodded absorbing the information. "And I cannot remain how I am can I."

"No, you can't move independently, the respirators breath for you, and if my calculations are correct the machines will fail as the cyber implants remain dormant. It's likely that the one in your brain will gradually take over. The only reason they haven't already is probably because there are no other cybermen on the Earth."

"Your pain meds already are ineffective, and you have metal plating over 70% of your body, even if we could remove the implants, there would be severe skin burns over the majority of your body, risking infection, it's a miracle there hasn't been a problem so far between the metal and flesh." Jack continued. "The implant in your brain is in a sensitive place, right now surgery to remove it would cause a significant portion of your brain being compromised as well as the risk of infection. Other more advanced surgeries in the future can minimise the risk but its still incredibly risky, and we don't know what will happen when we try and remove that helmet if there are safe guards involved." Jack tapered off.

The Doctor was pottering around with something else that he pointed at Lisa's head. "Damn it." He muttered. "You're right Jack. There's safe guards."

"Anyway we could override them, bypass them?"

The Doctor shook his head slightly.

Jack sighed and dropped his head once more.

"There has to be something." Ianto said again.

"There's nothing we can do Ianto." The Doctor said calmly.

Jack pulled Ianto to the side and spoke to him softly on the other side of the room.

"I'm sorry. I really thought for a minute there was a chance, I've never seen a full body being upgraded like this." The Doctor apologised to her softly. "Jack thought so too else he'd have never called me, I think you were the main reason for calling."

"Nice to know I've made an impression on him." Lisa said attempting humour.

"Pretty girl like you, he could never resist." The Doctor grinned.

Lisa let out a chuckle-sob squeezing her eyes shut to stop herself from crying. "Look after Ianto." She begged him.

"I think Jack already has that covered, if this is the way you go it's not so bad." The Doctor said. "You'll have the man you love by your side, slip away gently." He promised.

Lisa half nodded. "Not exactly going out with a bang."

"Who wants to go out with a bang, that'll hurt. It's not fair, I know." The Doctor said shutting his mouth close, feeling he was getting close to babbling.

"If my survival means that people die, that Ianto gets hurt, I don't want that. Promise me not to let me hurt anyone." Lisa looked at him.

"Jack is the person that will definitely keep that promise, I don't do weapons and such. Jack will look after his team."

Lisa nodded.

Jack came back and told the Doctor to leave, he left Ianto and Lisa to talk quietly together before activating his comms and checking on the rest of the team.

"Is there absolutely nothing Doc?" Jack asked once he finished talking with his team.

"Nothing, she's suffering right now we would only prolong the pain for a very small chance of recovery."

"What kind of chances are we talking about?"

"6% that we can remove the brain implant. 7% that the rest can also be removed, ignoring the risk of infection or complications. Overall chances is less than 2%, and she'll be forever scarred even with those chances."

Jack nodded. "Not the best of chances."

"Nope, and its also not including the risk of the implants defending themselves or being activated."

Jack nodded. "Such a shame, she's a great girl."

"Ianto loves her." The Doctor observed.

Jack rolled his eyes. "I know,"

"Would you have honestly given him up for her?"

"I have nothing to give up. Nothing has happened between us."

The Doctor regarded Jack carefully. "For you it has. Could you give up this second chance to be with him."

"He loves her. I love him so yes I'd have tried at the very least." Jack admitted not looking at the Doctor.

"Seeing him everyday in love with her. Asking your advice for when hes thinking of marrying her. Having kids."

"I didn't say it was going to be easy. He deserves a normal life, a happy life." Jack was watching Ianto and Lisa together, he was holding one hand, his other hand was gently stroking her cheek.

"You really love him." The Doctor said in amazement. He could see on Jack's face that he would have sincerely tried to let him go.

"Surprised." Jack said with a wry grin.

"No, well maybe a little, you seem so cavalier and free love I never expected you to settle down."

"I think I was the last person to expect it. Ianto never demanded commitment, I knew he wanted it but never asked for it. But I was exclusive with him, couldn't imagine anyone else I had everything I wanted with Ianto, I kept pushing him away in fear of losing him. All that gave me was regrets in how I treated him. Live for the moment. He literally slipped in under my skin, one day I realised that I couldn't imagine life without him. After he died my life was a mess, everything reminded me of him, I left Earth to get away from the pain and guilt and it still didn't work."

"You've got a second chance." The Doctor said in amazement. "You are an impossible thing Jack Harkness, something in this universe loves you."

Jack smiled slightly. "I thought it was some sort of illusion to torture me, remind me of all my failures, if this is real, heck even if this is all a dumb illusion I'm not going to regret anything this time round."

"Just be careful." The Doctor warned.

"Aren't I always."

They stood in companionable silence for a while.

"Am I going to have to meet you all over again?" Jack asked.

The Doctor winced, he hoped that Jack wouldn't have brought that up. "Yes, we might have to do that all over again. I'm sorry."

Jack nodded. "Great." He said sarcastically. "At least I'll see your better looking self once more."

"I'm sorry."

"With the good comes the bad." Jack muttered. "I'll see you and Martha, and a nice trip to the end of the world is always fun."

"Just run with it like you did before." The Doctor advised.

"Gotcha." Jack muttered.

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	5. Goodbyes and New Beginnings

A/N: I do not own Torchwood or any of the characters or make money from these stories.

_Just a summary so everyone knows what is happening. Post COE when Jack left Earth attempting to get over Ianto and Steven's deaths and after seeing David Tennant Doctor for the last time Jack fell asleep on a planet away from Earth and woke up three years in the past weeks before Gwen joined Torchwood. This story is exploring the what ifs that Jack has always felt but fighting the training he had in the Time Agency about preserving the timeline._

_There is some continuation of the canon storyline but will diverge more and more the further into the series we go. I'm planning on having this story last until the end of COE._

_I've written a large portion of the story so far so I'll be updating every day or two once I've edited and proof read through the chapters. Reviewing helps me stay on track and make sure people are actually liking the story._

Chapter Five: Goodbyes and New Beginnings.

Jack administered a lethal injection to Lisa with her consent after she said a tearful goodbye to Ianto as well as Jack, the Doctor got suspiciously teary as well as she slipped into a drug induced sleep before the lethal injection was given and she slipped gently away.

The Doctor retreated shortly after and left Ianto in Jacks capable hands, he went to the main area of the hub, citing that Jack was helping the Doctor repair the TARDIS and Ianto went to help. Amy and Rory had spent the day in Cardiff on a long date touring Cardiff castle and other tourist attractions after the Doctors suggestion.

Ianto stayed with Lisa for some time whilst Jack kept an eye on him, almost waiting for the explosion that occurred the last time.

Jack knew that Ianto was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he was clearly showing various signs, of which the Doctor and Jack picked up on, Ianto kept begging them to try other options and tried to stop Jack administering the injection that would stop her heart.

Jack dismantled the cyber unit carefully, removing all equipment as well. Ianto didn't disturb him or stop him, he only continued looking at Lisa. Once the equipment was stored in the hallway Jack had a body trolley rolled into the room.

"Ianto, we need to move Lisa now." He said carefully.

"Can it wait." Ianto asked softly.

"It's time to let her go."

"Is it?" Ianto scoffed. "Just like that, its not that easy."

Jack sat down beside him. "I know, you want to hold onto her forever, not forget what she looked like, feel like, the smell of her, smiles, sound of her voice."

Ianto turned to look at him. "I wondered if there was anyone you ever loved. You seemed so distanced from everything around you."

"I'm the life and soul of the party." Jack protested lightly.

"But you don't get close." Ianto observed. "You lost someone you loved."

"Yeah I did." Jack whispered.

"Does it get easier?"

Jack sighed. "You get stronger, strong enough to bear it."

"It doesn't go away?" Ianto looked at him in surprise. "Aren't you supposed to tell me that time heals all wounds."

"Someone who hasn't lost someone will say that." Jack started. "You loved her, she'll stay with you until you die."

"Which in Torchwood may not be too long." Ianto muttered noticing that Jack stiffened.

"You'll always remember her, maybe not all of it, but enough." Jack said thinking of his past loves, he didn't think that they came close to Ianto, and he hadn't got over Ianto before he was transported into the past.

Ianto nodded once more.

"It was peaceful Ianto, take comfort in that." Jack said softly placing a hand on Ianto's shoulder gently.

"She'd going to have to be cremated isn't she?" Ianto said, a few more tears slipping down his distraught face.

"Yes, because of the implants." Jack agreed, keeping his hand on Ianto. "Every part of the unit needs to be safely disposed of."

"Sure." Ianto agreed.

"We can hold a funeral for her."

"They already did," Ianto said. "She was declared dead after the battle I didn't go to the funeral."

"We can hold her a funeral or memorial for her if you want, just us."

Ianto seemed to consider it. "Maybe." He relented.

Jack carefully moved Lisa onto the trolley with Ianto's help and covering her with a sheet.

Jack dismantled the cyber unit and the entire room of all mechanical components and incinerated the entire thing. Jack, Ianto and the Doctor observed Lisa's cremation starting, before Jack took Ianto away.

"You can go home or stay here." Jack asked Ianto, he was not giving him an option of being alone however.

Ianto just shook his head. "It feels like its been one prolonged nightmare since the battle, how can I go on."

"The end is where we start from." Jack said remembering the words he said after Owen and Tosh's deaths.

Ianto just sighed.

Jack watched Ianto over the next few weeks, and saw that he blossomed slowly, gentle encouragement from Jack as well as Tosh's increasing friendship meant that he was slowly getting over Lisa's death and getting closer to his colleagues.

Now that Jack had a new lease of life, a second chance at this he was damned if he made the same mistakes again.

One of the first points to consider was that the team was too small. Jack knew that, had always known that but he preferred it small since it was easier to control, yet that method did not work the first time around, when Owen and Tosh died it left a gaping hole that the three remaining members could barely deal with, let alone living their own lives and dealing with grief. When Ianto died and the hub destroyed Jack used it as a way to leave, if Ianto had lived he'd have gladly rebuilt Torchwood.

Jack debated for a long time on whether or not to hire Gwen, she was a good agent, it nearly destroyed her relationship with Rhys, but the last he saw of her was alive, married and with a baby on the way. She had moved on which was why Jack left her after Ianto's death.

Jack sent out subtle feelers into various fields, looking for people to bulk out his operations, it wasn't fair to make Owen and Tosh field agents when they had their own specialities that made them almost irreplaceable, they were fine field agents but it wasn't their calling.

It would take time to get more agents and have them trained up and ready, but he hoped it would help them in the long run.

Jack, Owen, Tosh and Suzie arrived at a crimescene weeks later, with Ianto coordinating back at the hub, he was about as good as Tosh on a computer apart from the hacking she could do meaning he was ideal to train in her field in case of injury. It also helped Iantos confidence within the group.

Jack observed the surroundings, they were in some dingy back part of town, the area was run down and a murder victim under unusual circumstances was found, the Police had set up a cordon and Jack grinned when he noticed Andy and Gwen standing by the police car talking together, probably about Torchwood swanning in.

Jack quickly surmised the cause of death, an alien parasite had the unfortunate luck to be caught in a rift storm and deposited on Earth, he prodded the lifeform attached to the mans chest and sighed.

"Needed energy." He said, poking the creature again. "Too bad it attached itself to a drunken idiot."

"What does it matter if he's drunk?" Owen asked curiously as he took readings from the dead man and the alien.

"Alcohol is toxic for these creatures, definitely at the level of blood alcohol this man had." Jack continued. "These guys live in tropical rainforests so it's pretty rare that someone stumbles through them after a few hypervodkas, hence they rarely meet alcohol."

"Really? So did it kill the man?"

"The creature died from the alcohol poisoning, the man died from the parasite dying on him, probably partially due to exposure to the elements, and blood loss from the wound, made worse by the alcohol."

"Sound assessment Doctor Harkness." Owen grinned. "If it doesn't offend you I'll check your theory in autopsy."

"Of course Doctor Harper, wouldn't want to offend you." Jack grinned at him standing up swiftly hearing Ianto chuckling over the comms. He cast a sneaky look at Gwen and Andy once more, Andy had stepped away and was speaking to another person.

"Checking out the hot copper eh?" Owen grinned seeing Jack look for the third time now.

"Which one? The blonde or the brunette?" Jack teased.

"You mean the man or the woman?" Owen retorted.

"That was what I said."

"Well I don't swing that way so the chick."

Jack shrugged. "Pretty face for sure. But's he's cute in a puppy dog way."

Owen looked at him impassively. "So you're gay?"

"I'll be whatever you want me to be." Jack told Owen getting what he was looking for, Owen snorted and concentrated on the body leaving Jack alone.

"Maybe I should liaise with the Police?" Jack said before striding away. He walked confidently to the Police tape, stepping under it.

"Alright?" He grinned disarmingly at the police constable.

"You're Torchwood then eh?" Gwen asked determinedly.

"That's what it says on the side of our car." Jack smiled.

"What is Torchwood?"

"Shouldn't your questions relate to the topic at hand?" Jack asked.

"Would you answer?" Andy interjected he had noticed Captain Flash walk up to Gwen and had gone towards them.

"For you sweetheart. I'd do anything." He flirted.

Andy blushed red and Jack bit the inside of his cheek as Ianto kept a slew of comments into his earpiece.

"So what happened here?" Gwen said directing attention back to herself.

"He died."

"Well the paramedics confirmed that as the police arrived on the scene." Gwen said as if talking to a child.

"Well I confirmed cause of death." Jack bragged slightly. "But seriously. I've been considering a higher level of police liaising."

"You don't liaise with the police?" Gwen replied slightly confused.

"So I want to consider a higher level of police liaising." Jack reiterated with a grin which Andy tried to squash his own.

Gwen tried to squash a huff of annoyance.

"We'll pass this onto our superiors." Andy said with authority and sincerely.

"Well, wait a moment. I can be you liaison officer." Gwen said as Jack turned to step away, she took a step closer to Jack.

"You do?" Jack muttered ignoring Ianto's dry wit on the comms once more.

"Yes, I can do that for you." She flirted.

Jack was a little stunned. He thought that he was the instigator in the whole Gwen and him unresolved tension, but here she was starting it. Maybe it was the attention?

"Well I'd have to run full background checks on you both." Jack started.

"Both?" Gwen interrupted.

"Yes, but I already know all I need to know about you two. So Andy tell your superiors Torchwood is looking for a liaison officer within the police, and get them to send me names. I'll completely ignore the list of course but it'll give me an idea of just how much they want this." Jack grinned.

"Of course." Andy said.

"In the meanwhile, you can both be my unofficial liaison officers," Jack continued, he had always liked Andy in his unruffled exterior, he wanted to join Torchwood but he was a copper, and whilst he would go far in the Police, in Torchwood it might be too much.

"Both, but uh?" Gwen mumbled looking at Andy.

"Right, well Miss Cooper, Mr Davidson. Be seeing you." Jack winked at Andy and walked off.

The rest of the team were waiting for Jack in the SUV having already taken possession of the body and the alien leaving the clean up to the police.

Review please.


	6. New Beginnings

Author's Note: I don't own Torchwood, if I did COE will have ended very differently.

Received the best review ever from My-Rebel-Within you made my day! To answer a few of your questions, yes I plan on completing this story up to COE at least! As to the what if's. Thats the beautiful part of this story is that so many what ifs can occur and I'm exploring the concepts over what _must_ happen as to what can change without causing destruction of the timeline. There will definitely be no Gwack, I've written something to explore their relationship but definitely nothing more than harmless flirting.

Chapter Six: New Beginnings.

Jack followed up on Andy and Gwen the next day, Andy as he said told their superiors that Torchwood wanted to liaise and were putting together a short list of potential officers to be the Torchwood liaison. How quickly the Cardiff PD got the list to Jack was indicative of just how much they wanted this.

Gwen on the other hand was doing searches on Jack using their databases whilst Andy was researching Torchwood showing up on scenes. He liked how Andy thought, checking what the Institute done whilst Gwen did the same as before, there was nothing official about Torchwood in Police servers so once she got that she started on Jack's file, which didn't exist.

"Which are you going to choose?" Ianto asked as he stepped into Jack's office and placed his stripy blue mug on the coaster at his elbow.

"Hmmmm." Jack peeled his eyes from his laptop and turning his attention to Ianto.

"The blonde or the brunette, or as Owen would prefer, the woman or the man." Ianto smirked.

Jack grinned. "Not sure, I like them both. Cooper maybe as an agent, but keep Andy as a liaison officer."

"Andy is it now." Ianto teased.

"Jealous?" Jack drawled leaning back in his chair and observing Ianto.

"Hardly," Ianto replied.

"Gwen has potential as an agent, but Andy might be a little too soft as a field agent, and probably more use to us as a police officer." Jack replied honestly. "What do you think?"

"Me?" Ianto asked surprised.

"You've looked at both their files, you saw Gwen trying to trace our base here, Andy trying to track down our motives using the police scenes we turn up at."

Ianto nodded and took the chair opposite Jack "I agree that Cooper may have more potential as an agent, but she's a bit naïve, which could be a problem down the road."

Jack nodded. "There's no significant trouble in her entire life, suggesting there may be difficulties in her accepting aliens and what we do, so yes I do agree. But the chances are she'll pull through that."

"Why not give them both a little tour, show them a Weevil, see how they react." Ianto suggested. "I guess if they ever freak out enough to back out of Torchwood, the Police would definitely take them back."

Jack nodded. "Train both of them, use Andy as back up?"

"Sounds like a good plan." Ianto nodded.

"Right, I'll give them both a few more days see if they can get inside the hub." Jack grinned.

"You're teasing them."

"I've been told I'm a tease."

Ianto stood up and muttered in agreement as he left leaving Jack grinning.

Three days later Gwen managed to gain access to Torchwood using the same plan she used the first time. Since Ianto had never been at the crime scene she never saw him as part of Torchwood and claimed there was pizza to be delivered to Jack Harkness. Ianto let her in with a smile, and gave her an encouraging nod as she looked hesitant going in.

He followed her down, using the stairs rather than the lift that Gwen took down.

"Well, well Miss Cooper. Found our little secret base." Jack drawled. He used the same line as he remembered from his memories, annoyingly he couldn't think of a decent punch line.

"I'm sorry. I better go." Gwen said scared now at the look Jack was giving her and the intense feeling the base was making her feel.

"I think it's too late for that." Jack drawled, making Gwen give her trademark doe eyed look.

"You can't do anything to me, I'm police. You wanted me to liaise with you." She said nervously.

"You're right, you are the police. Come on then, follow me." He purposely didn't say anything in response to what he could do to her.

Gwen stumbled after him. Jack took her to have a look at Janet the Weevil, she sat in a daze in front of her for ages, just staring.

Jack had retreated to the doorway of the cells and used the comms to talk to Ianto about organising training for both Gwen and Andy. He pulled Gwen away from Janet some time later and she spent the entire next twenty minutes discussing the benefits of Torchwood serving the people of Cardiff and the Police.

"What you don't get Cooper, is that Torchwood is bigger than Cardiff." Jack started reeling around on her once they reached the main hub.

"What you're across the UK?"

"This is Torchwood Three, Torchwood One was destroyed a short while ago, Torchwood Two is the founding house in Scotland only a few people up there. We monitor a rift in time and space here, Torchwood One monitored a void which is now closed. I'm trying to build Torchwood here into a bigger and better Institute." Jack told her.

"Right." Gwen nodded.

"This is the start, I've been building up this team for years, the 21st Century is when everything changes the first alien contact occurs, I need this team to be brilliant, to be the best humanity can be."

Gwen looked extremely nervous but nodded. "I can do that."

"I'll be the judge of that." Jack grinned. "Introductions, Gwen Cooper meet Toshiko Sato, my technical genius, its obscene how she can hack anything, Suzie Costello, weapons expert and second in command, that's Owen Harper."

"That's Doctor Owen Harper." He interrupted emphasizing the Doctor.

"Yes, Doctor Owen Harper our Medic and Ianto Jones, Archivist and general know it all, irreplaceable, and he looks good in a suit." Jack finished with a mild leer at the young man,

"Careful, that's harassment." Ianto joked.

"Now that's the team so far." Jack grinned. "Andy and yourself will undergo training with us until we deem you fit."

"I'm joining torchwood?" Gwen asked in glee.

Jack paused at her tone of voice, "Both of you are being assessed for viability as a field agent, I've got plans to expand Torchwood you're just the first phase, now go home see your boyfriend and we'll contact you."

"Okay. Shall I leave my phone number?" Gwen asked hesitantly.

"We already have it." Tosh said. "We've been monitoring your calls and communications since Jack first spoke to you."

"But that's invasion of privacy you can't do that."

"Tough we do. Torchwood is protecting the entire human race for the future, a little privacy invasion every now and again is the least of your worries, if that's going to stop you, don't train with us, don't join." Jack taunted her.

"Like you said, train first, and of course I want to join." Gwen said determinedly.

"Stubborn." Ianto muttered to Jack once Gwen left.

"As a mule." Jack agreed. "Hopefully for the best."

Ianto nodded.

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	7. Day One Take 2

Author's note:

Since the last chapter was really short I've updated the next chapter which is rewrite of Day One, Gwen and Andy's first day at Torchwood.

deemama66: I don't really know what Gwen actually does at Torchwood either, which made it slightly difficult when trying to do job requirements for her, lol.

Chapter Seven:

Day One- Take Two.

Gwen and Andy started training with Torchwood a week later, Jack 'borrowed' them from the Police and gave them back their recommendations for Police Liaison Officer. Suzie was the main person that trained them, he hoped that the new project would distract her from the loss of the glove project, Ianto and Jack also helped out.

Jack had trained Ianto one on one covering everything any agent needed to know and it confused Ianto slightly that Jack was handing training over to Suzie. He wasn't complaining oh no, the training sessions with Jack were great, he got to know Jack more and more and Jack seemed to trust Ianto on a level Ianto would never have expected. There was also the part where the gun training session and the hand to hand combat lessons just gave Jack an excuse to get close to Ianto physically. Ianto partially hated that his body reacted to Jack's closeness whilst another part hated that he wanted it to happen feeling that he was betraying Lisa.

Ianto was observing Gwen and Andy's gun training session over the CCTV he saw that Suzie was a very good teacher especially given that she had two pupils at the same time, she also started with gun safety before moving onto the more 'cool' moves that Jack usually started with. Tosh was set to teach them both the hub systems within the next few days before Ianto would take them through the archives and the system he had in place. Owen merely had to give them a full physical and store their blood.

Jack in the meanwhile was very pleased with the progress they were both making, Gwen was over the small level of pride she had over being picked, which Jack belatedly realised was the problem in the first place. She was an only child, she was used to getting her own way, she matured beautifully in the latter years of Torchwood but that first year or so, and a few times afterwards she was flaky and could be self absorbed, especially when it came to her and Jack, often forgetting about Rhys. Jack was determined to do it right this time. Especially since he wanted Ianto again, he wasn't going to waste the time chasing normality when he could have happiness.

An asteroid crash landing in Cardiff led Jack to calling Gwen and Andy on their first mission. Andy was on shift with the Police and Jack told him to go straight to the crash site and stop anyone else approaching it. Jack paged Gwen who had the day off and picked her up on the way.

Once at the crash site, Jack met with the army attempting to take over the site, and Jack was very pleased to see Andy arguing with the Colonel in charge. Jack waltzed up to the two men.

"Well done Agent Davidson," He clapped Andy on the shoulder. "Let's get to work." He turned to the army officer. "We'll take it from here."

The rest of the team filed in after him with Gwen lagging and losing her nerve slightly under scrutiny of the army men.

"So it's an asteroid eh then?" Andy asked as they looked at it. "What's so X-Files about that?"

"Obviously an asteroid, but it could be an escape pod, prison transport, or just a piece of rock." Jack said as Owen and Tosh took samples.

Jack interjected before Owen could irritate Gwen into throwing stuff at him, but he didn't forsee Gwen tripping over some loose soil and falling into the asteroid, her equipment box being knocked over with her and a sharp object jamming into the side, enough to form a crack.

Jack yelled out and gas masks were handed out quickly, he leaped over to Gwen and pressed one to her face for her as Owen did the same to Andy, as their reactions still weren't up to pace.

"Clumsy are we?" Owen yelled angrily letting go of the gas mask he had pressed to Andy's face as Andy took hold of it.

"Shut it Owen," Jack said, he roughly dragged Gwen backwards to safety as the sex crazed alien gas escaped.

As soon as the gas cleared Jack took his mask off.

"Andy get back to the police station, I need suspicious reports from nightclubs or bars patched to us asap." Jack said dragging Gwen away.

"Everyone else in the SUV." He pushed Gwen towards Suzie and went over to Andy.

"I need you to get a police car to a nightclub I think might be a target, don't ask questions. Just do it," Jack told Andy the address and watched him get into his police car and drive off. Jack got into the SUV and drove to the hub.

Gwen kept apologising and apologising and it was getting on Jacks nerves just like the last time.

"There's been a nightclub death called into 999, Andy called it in shortly afterwards, suspicious circumstances, Andy will be waiting there." Ianto said as soon as they walked in and dropped their samples from the asteroid, Ianto had his phone in one hand and confirmed with Andy that Jack was on the way.

Jack took Gwen, Owen and Tosh with him, asking Suzie and Ianto to start running tests on the samples they had and arranging transport of the asteroid.

Jack double checked the address he was given by Ianto, it wasn't the one he remembered, things had changed slightly. He drove there as fast as possible and saw Andy waiting for them outside.

"One of the doormen called it in, he's got CCTV he wants to show us, the staff and the other doormen are still inside most the punters have left." Andy reported as they walked up to him.

"Excellent work Andy." Jack grinned. "Let's go see who we are dealing with."

They entered the club and Jack went to the security office to look at the CCTV and the person that called the crime in.

Interestingly enough it wasn't Carys Fletcher that was inhabited by the alien it was another young girl the CCTV footage was similar enough, the man disappeared into a pile of dust after orgasm.

"What the hell was that?" Gwen cried in shock.

"Oh my god, he just…." Tosh gasped.

"Came and went." Jack deadpanned, good joke the first time round, no need to waste it he smiled.

Gwen tried to interrogate the nightclub owner much like she would in the police, which got no results.

"Thanks, let's go." Jack said, he had already taken the recording and sent it to Ianto and Suzie to run through the facial recognition software back at the hub.

"This is all my fault," Gwen said as they walked through the main area of the club.

"If you are going to guilt trip yourself it's going to kill you." Jack spun on her, the others watching him. "Yes it was a mistake but if you feel guilt over this it will bury you." He knew that, how many people's blood did he have on his hands, the guilt haunted him sometimes.

Jack turned back and led them all to the hub, once inside he called a board meeting Andy included and started the meeting.

"So far we know that the alien gas feeds off energy from sex." Jack began.

"That's an assumption." Gwen interrupted.

"No, they were having sex, he turned into a pile of dust and she absorbed it, self explanatory." Jack retorted.

"But what if they don't know it's a bad thing here." Gwen tried.

"A person still died, at the very least we need to contain them," Ianto said.

Tosh nodded. "It happens every now and again, some species of alien can see us as a lesser species since we are different, some say we are primitive, they see it in the same way as we use animals."

"No, but" Gwen stammered.

"Well think about it, we use cows, chicken and sheep for energy by eating them." Ianto said.

"What you and you welsh do to sheep is none of our business." Owen drawled.

"Oh, so because we're Welsh, we're all sheep shaggers eh." Gwen retorted angrily.

"He's trying to wind you up." Suzie placated her.

"There's a lot you need to learn about aliens Gwen, don't think of them as humans, once you apply human laws and rules to them it gets messy." Jack advised.

"Start with basic morals and work on the rest in the job?" Andy asked.

"It's a good way to start. Torchwood when it first started had the same instincts that some of these species we see have. If its not human no human laws apply, they would kill all aliens after capture, once they learned anything valuable from them."

"That's barbaric." Gwen said angrily.

"But it happens, end of story. We're different here." He told mainly Gwen and Andy. "But I need you to follow my orders. It'll keep you alive."

"What's the plan?" Owen asked.

"We need to assume that the alien will go on the usual bender, so more victims will crop up." Jack said sitting in his seat. "How is the facial recognition gone?"

"We got a hit just before you came back." Suzie said, she nodded at Ianto who activated the viewscreen in the board room and a mugshot of a young girl was shown.

"Erin Matthews, 20, university student at Cardiff and from Swansea, was arrested 6 months ago for minor affray." Suzie said pulling up the rest of her file. "Spent the night in jail and let her off on a warning, booked her to scare her I reckon."

Andy nodded in agreement. "It's usually a good idea to get one or two of the new uni students collared reckon it keeps most of them out of trouble. Her file shows it was just some drunken fight, no big deal."

"Can you set it up to alert us if she shows up on CCTV?" Jack asked.

"Already done." Ianto replied.

"What do we know about her? Part time job, hobbies, boyfriend, we need to know where she might target next."

The team nodded.

"Call the university if she's staying in halls find out where, Tosh try and track her movements from leaving the club, see if she went back towards the uni halls."

"Right." Tosh nodded.

"We need a body to match the man, disfigure the face enough and dump in the bay, make it look like an accident." Jack said, Gwen was right the last time that telling his family that he committed suicide wasn't very fair.

The team split up and moved off to do their respective jobs.

Jack in the meanwhile tried to triangulate the origin of the crashed transport the alien came in on as he had done before, he ignored Gwen's probing into their personal lives quipping that he was married to the job.

Once they had the Erin's address they mobilised. Jack took Owen, Suzie and Gwen with him this time, simply because he knew that Suzie was good in a capture and Gwen was standing around doing nothing otherwise.

He warned Gwen before going in to treat this as she would in apprehending a suspect in the police force and to not let them out of her sight, but yet again the girl pulled a fast one on Gwen and dodged her attack, if it wasn't for Owen using the portable inflatable cell again she'd have got away.

"Power runs out after a while." Owen said as he looked at Erin in the cell.

"Next time ask permission to take stuff from the hub, how many times do I have to tell you." Jack told him sternly.

"Fine, don't thank me." Owen grumbled.

Jack ignored him and took Erin into custody.

Once back at the hub, he threw Gwen into the deep end once more and told her to interrogate Erin, whilst thinking he needed Suzie to go over gun safety with her by how she was acting back at Erin's halls.

Over dinner they discussed the case, and Owen teased Gwen in her interrogation tactics.

"She might have been releasing some pheromones." Jack defended since Gwen and Erin were caught in a pretty intense snog down in the cells.

"Sure, and why didn't she try that trick on us at her house."

"Might not have such a good effect on a group, we'd have an orgy on our hands, although if that were the case I might have rearranged the group that I took with me." Jack grinned.

"Yes, count me out. Sex with you?" Owen mock choked.

"Trust me Owen, that image would be in my nightmares." Jack deadpanned.

"What do we do with her?" Gwen asked. "She asked for help."

"Or the alien did to play on your compassion." Jack countered.

"Either way we need some sort of plan, can't we just send her on her way?" Andy asked. "Assuming we can remove the alien from the girl."

"Her ship was destroyed." Gwen said. "But we can't let her kill anyone else."

"Indefinite containment?" Owen asked solomly.

"It's not something I like to consider. First thing we need to find a way to get her out of the girls body." Jack replied.

"If that's possible." Owen said morbidly.

"She got in, she can get out." Jack said firmly.

After discussing the case, Jack started to regale them with a Torchwood case from a few years ago, telling it to Gwen and Andy.

"And she said…she said, 'If I'd known that's what he was, I never would have married him!'

"She knew! She knew all along!" Tosh laughed.

"She didn't care." Owen added.

"Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub." Ianto deadpanned.

Jack grinned and took a sip from his drink. "Always the big giveaway. Aliens have no sense of household hygiene. Which reminds me, gotta pee." Jack stood up and left them.

As soon as Jack left the team turned to their new agents.

"So what he told you?"

"What?" Gwen asked.

"About himself?" Tosh asked.

"You've been here longer." Gwen said defensively.

"We were banking on you." Tosh said disappointedly.

"You're a copper, trained to ask question." Owen said looking between Andy and Gwen.

"You don't know anything?" Gwen asked shocked.

"Not who he is, not where he's from. Nothing, except him being gay." Owen said.

"No!" Gwen said in shock. "No, he's not, really, do you think?"

"Owen does, I don't" Tosh elaborated.

"I don't care." Ianto interjected.

"Period military is not the dress code of a straight man." Owen said self assured.

"I think it suits him. Sort of classic." Gwen said, he admired the handsome man.

"He did kiss the Doctor." Ianto said with a smirk.

"Yes you won that bet." Owen grumbled. "But it was only a kiss, the Doc seemed very clear that he wasn't some lover of Jack's."

"I've seen Jack in action. He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough." Tosh said.

"Well we know he's from America, right?" Gwen said starting on the obvious.

"We don't know that for sure." Suzie admitted.

"No US citizen by the name of Jack Harkness born in the last fifty years." Tosh said with a tone that indicated that she done the search herself.

"Maybe his identity is classified." Andy suggested.

"Ex CIA I reckon, someone big and got reassigned." Ianto offered. "Unless Jack Harkness is the name he changed to."

"He must have reasons for keeping things secret."

"Sure,"Owen shrugged. "Still want to know."

"We don't even know when he joined Torchwood." Tosh said in a conspiritoral tone.

"We can estimate however, the former leader of Torchwood Three committed suicide after killing his team on new years eve 1999, all bar Jack who was named the successor." Ianto said.

"You don't think that Jack had something to do with that?" Gwen asked in shock.

"No, I saw the report at Torchwood London, there was interference from an alien device." Ianto said, stopping when he heard Jack coming back.

"What you talking about?" Jack asked as he sat back down seeing everyone had stopped talking. "Ah, its that weird moment where everyone's been talking about you. Come on then, anything good?"

"Ianto was telling us about when he thought you started here, when was it Jack?" Gwen said.

Ianto closed his eyes and mentally rebuking Gwen for her idiocy.

"Ianto doesn't know when I started Torchwood." Jack said confused.

"No, well, he said that it was before 1999, because that's when you became leader here right?" Gwen continued.

Jack leaned back in his chair and looked at the rest of the team, Ianto looked like he would quite welcome a black hole under his seat, whereas Owen, Tosh and Suzie were hopeful they would get answers but at the same time feeling bad.

"I joined Torchwood in '99" Jack admitted.

"But how would you have been given leadership of the base after the homicide-suicide?" Gwen asked stupidly.

"They were my friends Gwen," Jack said angrily. "I saw them dead, and Alex spoke to me, he apologised that he couldn't spare me, and killed himself. Told me that Torchwood wasn't ready for the 21st century, told me to make something good of it."

"But less than a years experience?" Gwen continued in a slightly less sure tone of voice.

"Technically I was the only person left." Jack sighed and looked down at his hands. "You don't deserve to know my secrets Gwen, and there's a good reason why nobody knows them either."

"But, they don't know anything about you." She argued.

"What's to know? Who I am right now, right here is important, the rest is curiosity."

"Well we know the Doctor is in your past." Owen said slowly.

"The Doctor is in my past yes, he's also in my future." Jack said. "I'll be seeing him again soon enough, the rest of you will too."

"But where were you born? Just tell us something." Gwen asked.

Jack stood up in his chair, pondering it. "I can't tell you where I was born, everything is in context you see, telling you that leads to other questions."

"Owens more concerned about your sexuality." Ianto said offering Jack a way out.

"All you had to do was ask Owen." Jack leered.

"Gross." Owen muttered.

"As for my sexuality if you must know, I consider myself to be omnisexual if I had to place one of your labels on it."

"Omni?"

"Ever had sex with an alien?" Jack grinned.

"Gwen certainly was trying earlier." Owen deflected the attention to Gwen.

Jack slipped out of the room sending Ianto a wink in thanks.

The computer mainframe had been running full analysis on Erin and her cell in the time they took to eat which he gladly told Gwen when she accused them of not doing enough, Tosh had found that Jacks earlier joke about sex pheromones were right and she had a potent amount in the air surrounding her.

Jack cursed when he forgot how Carys escaped, it appeared that Erin had done a runner whilst Owen was running tests in her cell, he rushed to the main hub sending the others to the cells to get Owen out. He had to save the Doctor's hand.

Jack tried blocking Erin's escape from the hub, but unluckily she used the hand in defence.

"No, not that. That's worthless to everyone but me." Jack shouted at her.

Erin looked confused since it was a hand in a jar but used it to her advantage. Slowly she backed out of the hub, Jack following her, they made it the whole way up to the tourist office where Ianto was behind the counter.

"Need me to do any attacking sir?" He asked.

"Thanks for the offer Ianto, stay there, just open the door."

Ianto pressed the button and the tourist office door opened.

"Now give that." Jack asked now he knew how important it was to the Doctor and to Donna and he guessed to Rose, he couldn't let it get damaged.

Erin considered her options and like Cary's did she threw the jar as far from her into the tourist office as she could throw and ran in the opposite direction.

Ianto since he had been told to stay behind the counter was in a prime position to catch the jar as it flew over the counter.

Jack turned and leapt over the counter.

"You caught it." Jack said dumbfounded.

"Er, yes, it appears so." Ianto said placing it carefully on the counter.

Jack grinned and kissed Ianto chastely on the lips in exuberant thanks before grabbing the jar as Tosh, and Suzie ran after Erin.

"What's important about the hand sir?" Ianto asked getting over the shock of Jack kissing him, and the fact he liked it.

"It's the Doctor's hand, he's going to need it soon, I need to give it back to him,"

"You've had that for some time sir, and the Doctor was here mere weeks ago."

"Wrong Doctor, timelines Ianto, it was the wrong timeline, I need to give it to his younger self."

"Right." Ianto nodded.

"Let's see if they caught Erin."

Suzie and Tosh came back with no Erin in tow. Owen was downstairs trying to use the CCTV tracking to find her.

Gwen in the meanwhile had started to lecture Jack on the importance of human life over a severed hand whilst Andy tried to stop her.

"Gwen, you have no idea what this hand will be used for so don't pretend to." Jack said looking at the hand that moved a few fingers as if waving.

"It's a severed hand." Gwen almost yelled.

"This hand will contribute to saving the lives of all of us, as well as all of the Doctors most recent companions. But you are still a naïve human that can only see five minutes in front of her face." Jack replied angrily. "You need to see the bigger picture, if you really want to prove yourself you find her."

"Fine," Gwen stalked off.

"She's just stubborn." Andy said. "Usually for the right reasons."

"She needs to trust the team and she need's to look beyond the moment."

"So how far in advance are you looking?" Andy asked quietly.

Jack looked up at him. "Hundred years, I'm making sure first contact goes on as scheduled."

"Tell me it's with a good kind of alien, not the enslaving type." Andy joked.

"Yes, it's good, it'll be the start of the great and bountiful human race, spreading across three galaxies."

"How do you know that?"

"I travelled with the Doctor, he has a time machine." Jack explained.

"Gwen doesn't know that?" Andy asked with a grin.

"Nope." Jack mirrored his grin.

An hour later and after Owens troubling conclusion that the combination of gases that were inhabiting Erin would soon cause Erin's body to implode, the race seemed to be on to find her.

"We have to think like her." Gwen said taking charge, like she wasn't the rookie.

"Find her motivations?" Andy asked.

"So we can find her." Gwen agreed.

"But who is controlling the impulse? Erin or the alien?"

"The over-riding impulse for the alien is to have sex." Tosh stated.

"So what, brothels?"

"Erin's impulse is to have sex as that's what the alien wants, but she knows it will kill her, where would she go?"

"I'd come round and shag you." Owen told Gwen.

"So eager men easy to pick up?" Jack stated.

"Well, she knows it's going to kill them right. I'd know where to start." Tosh said.

Unfortunately they had no record of Erin having a boyfriend, so they went back to her dorm room and looked for any significant male appearing in her photos or text messages on her phone, Ianto back at the hub said there was a private message between Erin and a female friend bemoaning a guy she had been sleeping with a little while, Erin had just found out that he had been sleeping with another girl too, it took Ianto a little time to find the name of the mysterious man but as soon as he had he relayed the information to Jack. They were too late to save the boyfriend however, they burst into his dorm room and found a pile of dust on his bed.

"Too late." Jack said angrily.

"What now?" Gwen asked.

"Look here." Jack picked up a flyer from the boys desk, it was for a fresher ice breaker party that night.

"Isn't a party too public?"

"Fresher party, full of freshmen, cocky blokes who don't care who they shag." Owen said.

"Let's try it." Jack replied.

They made their way to the house where the party was, Ianto providing directions. Once there they slipped inside and tried to blend in and make their way upstairs, Tosh stayed downstairs to keep an eye out for Erin if she was down there whilst the others went to clear out the upstairs rooms.

Jack burst into one room and found a small pile of dust. "Shit."

He ducked out and waved to the others to hurry their pace. Three rooms and three piles of dust later they found Erin and a young man in the room.

"Get out." Jack told the young man who ran away. Jack pointed his gun at Erin as did the others behind him, he was irritated to observe Gwen holding her gun loosely pointed at the ground, he heard Owen tell Tosh to head upstairs.

"Nowhere to run." Jack said quietly but dangerously.

Erin turned to them she glanced out the window, but it was two storeys high and they'd reach her before she got the window open. "All this sex. All we see, all we think. So much beauty…and so much fear." She said wearily. "We want it, but we're so afraid."

Erin doubled over in a fit of pain, Jack grabbed Gwens arm as she rushed forward, he pushed her roughly behind him.

"The strains too much, any second now, and its rat jam." Owen said morbidly.

"One more and I'll be strong. Each time, it works less. Each time, the feelings weaker. One more. Make me feel alive. Feel human." She begged.

"I can't" Gwen said from where she wriggled past Jack.

"I can." Jack holstered his gun and stepped forward.

"Jack!"

"I've got a surplus of alive. I'll give it to you." Jack told Erin like he told Carys.

Jack kneeled by Erin's side and kissed her willing to feel that energy transfer, feeling the glow passing from him to her.

"What is he doing?" Owen asked confused.

"That's just a kiss, imagine the rest." Jack flirted and watched amused as Erin collapsed but still remained concious.

"Again, not the reaction I anticipated."

"Her body won't last long." Owen reminded him.

Gwen stepped closer to Jack and Erin. "Use me, Leave Erin and use my body as host."

"No." Jack grabbed Gwens arm.

"I'm stronger than she is. I'll last longer. You might be able to save me, I don't know."

"Fine," Jack stood up, he debated her definition of stronger.

"You can't let her!" Tosh said in shock.

"Like she said, she's partially responsible." Jack took a step back so that he was a few steps behind Gwen with Owen and Tosh behind him.

Gwen encouraged the alien to leave Erin and take her as a host and as soon as the purplish gas cleared Erin's body and approached Gwen Jack neatly chucked the inflatable cell that Owen used the previous day on Erin and captured the alien. Within seconds it had died in the atmosphere.

Jack kneeled by the dust left by the alien muttering about dying alone, thinking about Owen dying alone in Turnmill, about the others he knew dying alone.

"Thank you." Gwen said softly, Jack remembered just in time to turn his head slightly as she had grasped his chin and kissed him, he turned his head so she only kissed the corner of his mouth.

Jack gladly made sure that Erin was ok, Gwen had made sure that Erin took some time to go home for the weekend at least to recover.

Jack also knew he needed a serious chat with Gwen.

He found her clearing up her attempt at profiling on Erin.

"You need to keep your life." Jack told her.

"Sorry?"

"Your life outside of this is important, don't let it slip okay." Jack said.

"Sure."

"I mean it Gwen, tell Rhys you're in special ops, tell him bits you can in code or whatever, I mean you can't tell him about what you investigate in the police completely it's the same."

"I go home and tell him there was a sex crazed alien on the loose." Gwen said sarcastically.

"No, serial killer." Jack smiled.

"He won't understand." Gwen said, she looked at Jack through her eyelashes giving him her doe eyed look. "What about you? You went all out to keep me safe." Gwen took a few steps towards Jack.

"I'll protect everyone on my team Gwen, but you need to get your act together. Everyone's got tomorrow off but day after that you are going to be retraining with Suzie and are off field missions."

"What?" Gwen asked in surprise, she halted in her progression towards jack.

"You didn't see Erin as a threat because she was possessed, wrong move that could have cost you both your lives. You also flaunted basic gun safety twice by my account and I like it when people stand up to me, but you need to trust my judgement I've been doing this for some time."

"Too long, you've forgotten what it's like to be human." Gwen muttered.

"So remind us, but don't push it in the other's faces, it won't get you friends. Go home Gwen." Jack told her.

Gwen nodded and turned away.

"Oh and Gwen." Jack waited until Gwen turned back. "Don't try and kiss me again, I'm not interested, you have your boyfriend keep hold of him."

Gwen coloured slightly that she was brought up on her behaviour and quickly left.

Jack sighed, and wished it had been easier dealing with this alien, so much for avoiding certain bad days.

Review.


	8. The Torchwood Expansion

AN: I do not own Torchwood or any of the recognisable characters. Matt and Jane are my own creation though.

This chapter is a tiny bit of a filler chapter, but I think it's still good. Next chapter will be Countrycide.

Chapter 8: Torchwood expansion.

Jack spoke to Suzie after they all had a day off and told her to go over Gwen's training again, he also sent Gwen on Weevil hunts with Suzie, Owen and himself to get an idea of how dangerous things could get and was pleased that she got herself together. Andy's training went fine and Jack sent him back to the Police force and had briefed him on cases and patterns to look out for. They had software that screened police calls and flagged them, but written reports and patterns took time to develop and weren't always caught by the software.

The team had another case involving a piece of alien tech that used psychic energies left behind by people to conjure up visions of a particular emotive scene. It only worked in the place where it happened, Owen saw a young girl being raped and murdered whilst Gwen saw a boy lost after being taken evacuated to the countryside in the last world war.

Jack followed the Doctor's advice this time and stayed out of meddling instead letting the story unfold itself. As he was seeing it with new eyes no longer stuck in the moment, he cursed himself when he saw Gwen's mishandling of the knife that caused the old man to kill himself trying to hug Gwen for saving him he never noticed that the last time.

Owen and Andy put Ed Morgans body into the SUV whilst Gwen sat on the curb her shirt and hands still covered in blood. Jack rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Do we need to go over proper handling of weaponry again Gwen?" Jack asked frustrated.

"I killed him." Gwen said, her voice and body still in shock, her eyes open wide unseeing.

"I'm taking you off field duty." Jack told her.

"What? What for?" Gwen asked stirred from her stupor.

"It was an accident Jack." Tosh defended in his ear over the comms.

"It could have been prevented."

"He wanted to die." Owen added.

"It's not the situation involved. Gwen held the weapon in a fixed position in front of her body blade pointed away from her, he impaled himself on it. I get it, he's an idiot and I don't really care if he's alive or dead. But Gwen, you'll go over weapon training with Suzie once more, this time I'll observe because I highly doubt that Suzie is an incompetent teacher." Jack told her sternly.

"In the meanwhile," Jack continued to the whole group. "I've got a few more possibilities to join us as agents, so I'm going to check them out and see if they might fit in. If you can't handle this Gwen, you can leave, go back to the police and do what Andys doing for us." He told her again.

"No, no I want this job."

"Then get your act together." He told her sternly.

Jack got into the SUV and waited for the others to get in as well before going back to the hub.

"It's not fair Jack. Give me a break, that ghost device really hit me and then thinking I'm going to die." Gwen said passionately.

"I know Gwen, but sometimes that compassion is going to drive you nuts. You did well earlier getting that device off Bernie, but you need to pick and choose when to let it get to you. You need some perspective, Owen saw that girl raped and murdered, you saw a lost boy." He emphasized that she got the better end of that deal.

"OK, I get that. Really I do, but this whole thing is madness, Jack. I just need to adjust." Gwen asked.

"Fine adjust, but you need to get your act together for on the field. If anyone on this team is endangered by your lack of care I will have no trouble at all in retconning you." Jack threatened.

"You won't do that." Gwen said but there was a flicker of doubt in her eyes.

"I don't like to but I will." Jack said before turning away from her.

Since Jack and the Doctor concluded that Jack had somehow received his memories from the future Jack was trying to improve his life and the lives of those around him and he decided that he would let go of all the worries of possible futures that had previously held him back. So Jack would meet with Estelle and most especially with his daughter Alice and grandson Steven.

Alice and Steven lives outside of Bristol which wasn't too far of a drive to visit them, and he had spent time there getting to know them more than he had previously. Jack also spent time with Estelle and knew that her run in with the fairies was coming up and he desperately wanted to save her.

The month following the ghost machine incident was pretty quiet, meaning Jack spent a lot of time visiting Estelle and his family as well as scouting the new recruits he had considered.

He also visited the Royal Family as Head of Torchwood 3 and requested permission for his expansion. They spent some time discussing the operations and the aftermath of Canary Wharf, he was also formally introduced to the younger members of the Royal Family, Princes Harry and William and they were both briefed on the role of Torchwood at the other departments such as UNIT that dealt with extra terrestrial threats. He left the meeting happy, as he gained permission from her Majesty and felt the entire thing went over well, he wanted to use that connection better than he done previously.

He also allowed Ianto to get a whole week off, allowing Ianto to make the proper arrangements and deal with Lisa's death as well as reconnecting with his remaining family.

Jack also used the extra hands from Gwen and Suzie to make sure that the other members of Torchwood got some normal working hours, his idea was to start a shift rotation with certain members on call, it would enable those who had the night off to actually keep it unless the world was actually ending.

Jack had scouted two other people, one had medical training, who worked in MI5 and had recently left there after serving them for 8 years, he had an exemplary record and word was that the FBI, UNIT and CIA all had their eyes on him. So Jack wanted to get there first naturally. Jack had watched the man for several days and liked what he saw, the man knew instinctively knew he was being watched and was very good at evading Jack following him around. All in all Jack was very pleased, so Jack was planning on making an offer to the man.

Matthew Reynolds was a 28 year old, with an athletic build, short dark blonde hair and brown eyes, with no immediate family.

"Why the hell are you following me?" Jack had been shoved against an alley wall, both hands captured in a tight grasp and he literally could not get out of the hold the man had on him.

"Matthew Reynolds."

"How do you know my name?" He growled shoving Jack harder in the brick wall.

"My name is Captain Jack Harkness I work for Torchwood and honestly I love a bit of rough and tumble in an alley as much as the next guy but you are starting to hurt."

"Torchwood?" He asked ignoring Jacks protest.

"Let me go and I'll explain everything."

"Fine." Matthew let him go, but not before he took Jacks hand gun off him and pointed it at Jack.

Jack turned and straightened his coat.

"Excellent reflexes and skills." Jack grinned approvingly.

"Explanation?"

"I work for Torchwood, I want you to come and work for me." Jack told him honestly.

"Sorry, no idea what Torchwood is, nor do I care. I really dislike people following me as well." Matthew said, his hand steadily holding Jacks gun just out of reach for Jack to make a risky grasp for the gun.

"Can we take this somewhere more private and I'll tell you everything, its classified material." Jack told him.

"ID?"

Jack took out his Torchwood credentials and showed them to him.

Matthew seemed to judge Jack and nodded and gave Jack a few instructions of where to go, Matthew remaining behind him holding the gun defensively.

Once Matthew directed Jack to his house a minutes walk away he took Jack into the living room and requested the truth once more.

"Torchwood was set up by Queen Victoria in 1889 to combat the threat of aliens and the supernatural on the empire."

"Aliens?" Matthew scoffed.

"They exist, and I can prove that. But firstly, Torchwood Three in Cardiff is where I run it, it's the biggest base we have right now, Torchwood One in London was the site of the Battle of Canary Wharf, the cybermen and Daleks I'm sure you remember?"

"Yeah I remember the metal men." He said quietly.

"I'm in the process of expanding my operations, with Royal consent and you caught my eye."

"I have several other job opportunites to consider but thank you." Matthew said with only the slightest bit of sarcasm.

"You left the MI5 quite suddenly." Jack changed tactics. "What you or your team stumbled across was an alien operation."

Matthew stiffened at that revelation.

"I got the files on the case, UNIT were all over it, and blew it." Jack said bitterly.

Matthew had been working on a case of supposed terrorism involving the trafficking of dangerous materials, what he didn't know was that there was a band of aliens camped in the North of France that had managed to get people to ferry them as much toxic material as they could find. Matthew and his team assumed (quite logically) that they would be used in a series of 'dirty bombs' or a way to make large populations very ill by contaminating water supplies or food supplies with toxic waste. UNIT had got hold of the case and since it was an overseas operation Torchwood didn't have the man power or the jurisdiction to take the case over UNIT. UNIT also acted sneakily and took the case on without ever informing Torchwood.

The aliens camped out in a field in northern France wanted the toxic waste to power their damaged spaceship, the toxic waste was worthless as a power source for humans but the aliens knew a way to use the waste materials to power a short trip until they could reach a space port and get decent fuel. The aliens weren't dangerous or a threat only looking for a way to get home, and they kept a low profile so if no one had flagged the toxic waste transports, they would have left peacefully.

The end result of the case was that the aliens were all killed as well as their spaceship along with 29 civilians in the nearest town from the resulting explosion and toxic leakage. Matthew Reynolds and his team were also in the area and two of his team were injured, one of them quite severely. They were brushed off by UNIT and Matthew gave up afterwards since he was constantly being pushed aside by idiots from UNIT.

Jack told Matthew the entire story and confirmed it by the photos he had gathered from UNIT files, which Tosh had helpfully stolen from their mainframe. They had photographed the ship and two of the aliens accepting the toxic waste in a trade, they also photographed the aftermath and claimed that the casualties were worth the risk.

"I want to stop that happening again." Jack told him.

"They were friendly?" Matthew asked looking at the photos.

"Yes, completely docile species, they specialise in agriculture on their home worlds, they didn't deserve this. The worst thing, is that it was a family ship, tourist ship, one or two families were on board when they crashed."

"They killed children."

"Yes."

Matthew sighed. "What do you want from me."

"You knew that something was wrong with this entire situation, you kept battling UNIT for power, called in every favour you had for any news on this entire thing. You left the MI5 because it didn't get you anywhere."

"People died, and I was given some shoddy answer that it was nothing to do with the investigation, which I knew was a load of bullshit." Matthew admitted.

"Torchwood Three is in Cardiff, have a look around, decide then. We make a difference in the world, we save the world. You can contribute to so much there."

"Got the pitch thanks." Matthew smiled. "Leave your contact details and I'll call you in a few days."

Jack smiled and stood up, handing him his card. "I'll speak to you soon."

"What makes you so sure that I'll join?"

"It's a job that never leaves you, you'll learn a lot." Jack smiled and left his house after accepting his weapon back. Jack wasn't ever telling anyone that he lost his gun.

The second of his two new recruits was a woman living in London, Jane Mathers, she worked for security companies and private investigation firms for years, and had many contacts within country wide Police forces as well as higher ups in government and was a very good investigator. She had been on Torchwood One's watch list since she had foiled three alien minor criminal activities. Torchwood One swept in at the last minute but the last time let her do the leg work and just jumped in at the last hurdle. Jack knew that she would be a good addition to his team she would be an excellent field agent, having experience in different forms of martial arts, she also done fencing in her youth and had weapons training. She was 29 years old 5'10 blonde woman with a slender build but with muscles from her martial arts.

Like he done with Matthew, he observed her for a few days without interacting but like Matthew she knew she was being watched and he knew he needed to be careful with this one. And just like Matthew she confronted him before he went to her.

"Why me?" She asked him after he explained about Torchwood. Her hands were on her hips and she was giving him a searching look.

"You are thorough in your investigations, you don't take crap from nobody and you don't ever give up. I think you'll be a good field agent." Jack told her.

"Cardiff?" She grimaced. "Not sure about that."

"The location isn't optional, we monitor a rift in time and space that runs through Cardiff," Jack explained.

She shrugged. "I'll have to think about it, and maybe get more information."

"I'll bring you in for a visit." Jack promised, he left her his contact details and left her to think.

Several days later Jack brought both Matthew and Jane in for a tour together, they'd have to work together at the very least. He also brought everyone else in for a meet.

"Matthew Reynolds and Jane Mathers, meet the team. Doctor Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones, Suzie Costello, Gwen Cooper, and Andy Davidson." Jack pointed each person out.

"Owen is our medic here, Tosh is our mechanical genius, Ianto is our archivist and general support. Suzie is second in command and weapons expert. Gwen and Andy are new here too. Andy is our police liaison so only works a few shifts here really."

Everyone waved and exchanged hellos.

"Right, I'll get you two a quick tour of the hub and then we can discuss our day to day runnings of the hub as well as operations and answer questions."

Jack took them over the hub and introduced them to Myfanwy and their resident Weevil Janet. He also introduced them to the Hoix they had caught three days before.

"What do you do with the non threatening aliens that slip through this rift?" Matthew asked after they started their Q and A session mainly involving what they knew about the rift and what they did with it.

Jack exchanged a look with Ianto who knew the inner secrets of Torchwood from the archives.

"It depends on what species they are in honesty, a lot of them can blend in so are given a crash course in Earth culture which Ianto is halfway through updating and Ianto is also our unofficial parole officer as well I guess. We do need to keep tabs on them, make sure they are settling in."

"We do that?" Gwen asked.

"The situation hasn't come up since you or Andy has started here, and it doesn't happen often but we try."

"UNIT doesn't know this?" Matt smirked.

"Naturally." Jack said back. "I keep it under wraps, usually the only people that know anything about them is Ianto and I."

"Why Ianto?" Gwen asked. "Just curious."

"Owen has a terrible bedside manner, Tosh has enough to do as it is. Suzie didn't want to do it and Ianto agreed to it." Jack said.

"Oh, well I don't mind doing that." Gwen said as if she were solving problems.

"Thank you Gwen." Ianto replied. "But it's for the best if I carry on, they've been dealing with me for some time now."

Gwen looked put out but shrugged.

"How many of these are 'blending in?'" Jane asked.

"32." Ianto offered. "One of which is a family. I have detailed files on all of them in the secure archives."

"Of which only Ianto and I have the codes for them."

"Sounds like Ianto's your right hand man." Matthew grinned seeing Jack had a preference for the straight laced Welshman.

"Ianto is the only one of you lot that had psychic training for one." Jack said ignoring Matthews smirk.

"Can we all get that?" Gwen asked.

"I'm rubbish at training. And the guy who did it at Torchwood One is dead. Besides its not something that we really need here." Jack added. "Anyone with decent psychic powers will be able to rip through any psychic shields you could spend years building, the most you could hope for is stopping psychic paper or mild psychic influences."

"Psychic paper?" Andy chuckled.

"Yep, but you have to be careful what you are thinking when you hand it over." Jack grinned. "I used it once on a girl that later became a great friend, but wasn't concentrating enough so the psychic paper said 'Captain Jack Harkness, single and very available'" Jack laughed the others joining in.

"Where's this psychic paper now?" Owen asked thinking of the various uses he could have of it.

"Nah, lost it, probably about the same time my sonic blaster got chucked out the Doc's ship." Jack smiled.

"The Doctor has psychic paper then?" Ianto asked but knowing the answer already.

"Yes, he just doesn't like someone else having his little tricks." Jack chuckled. "Probably why he'd never fix this for me." Jack looked at his vortex manipulator.

"What is that?" Matt asked.

"It's a souvenir from the mid 51st Century, but it got burnt out some time ago and haven't been able to fix it since." Jack admitted.

"51st century?" Jane asked.

"What don't believe in time travel. The rift is in space and time, how else do you think we got Myfanwy?" Jack chuckled.

"Jack used to travel with a man that had a time machine, and we've all met him and its real." Suzie told the new guys, seeing how everyone knew about the Doctor and Jack was offering stories up about him.

"Yeah, I should run into him again in a few months." Jack said trying to remember which exact date it was.

"Be good to see him again." Tosh said happily, she hadn't had enough time to properly speak with the Doctor the last time.

"I don't think he'll be hanging around." Jack smiled sadly. How was he going to tell them he'd be disappearing for months?

"Should I give them an update on our latest cases?" Ianto offered a deflection.

"Yes, thank you Ianto."

Ianto took Jane and Matt off and told them their latest cases, from the Blowfish and the criminal drug gang they foiled to the numerous Weevils they had dealt with and sent back into the sewer, explaining what their method of dealing with them was. He also explained the ghost machine incident and the sex gas alien which drew a few questions.

Both Jane and Matt signed up to work at Torchwood and began their transfer to Cardiff, Matt turned down the other job offers and started looking for a place to live in Cardiff whilst Jane handed her company over to her business partner but wanted to keep in touch with the business since she started it. Jane also started looking for a flat and got some tips from Ianto who told her which area to look in and sent her a few possibilities.

Jack also commissioned a new SUV to be made with the same high tech specifications as the team was expanding but left the Torchwood insignia off the side.

Jack was happy with his new recruits, it was a start of a new better Torchwood, one that he was proud of.

Review.


	9. Countrycide

AN: I know in canon that Small Worlds came first, but in this Jack took hold of the case earlier than he did in canon to reflect that there are less victims gone missing than noted in the canon episodes.

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><p>A big massive thank you to everyone that has read and reviewed my stories, even just a little note saying that you're enjoying the story makes me happy :)<p>

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><p>Chapter 9: Countrycide.<p>

"So there are 15 people that have gone missing in this area in the past five months, the last person was time stamped because she was halfway through a phone call when reception failed in this area, she also told her husband that she was an hour and a half from home when the call failed, so we can narrow the place she disappeared to in this area." Andy told them, a map of the Brecon Beacons on the wall of the boardroom.

"Any leads?" Gwen asked.

"The lead detective on the case is baffled," Andy shrugged.

"There's a 20 mile radius of all the missing persons, are we sure they are connected?" Tosh asked.

"There's significant reason to believe they are connected." Andy replied. "It's a remote area of road and too high a number of missing persons all proven to have passed through this area to brush it off."

"Any links between the victims?" Gwen asked looking through the missing persons files.

"No bodies have been recovered." Jack replied, Andy had brought this to him first before Jack took the case.

Andy nodded. "But there's no link between age, race, sex, or even religion."

"Could this be rift related?" Suzie asked.

"Does the rift go out that far?" Matthew asked.

"There's no proof that it does." Jack said wearily.

"So maybe aliens have camped out in the Beacons?" Gwen suggested.

"No proof to that either, so we go into this, eyes wide open." Jack said sternly.

"This has probably nothing to do with aliens, might just be some damn suicide club." Owen snarked.

"Regardless we can check it out." Gwen said to Owen.

"Well the best place to set up camp would be where the most recent victim went missing." Jack said.

"I'm sorry, camp?" Owen asked.

"Would you rather stay in a place run by strangers?" Jack retorted.

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><p>Ianto gathered the camping equipment and set them into the two SUVs. Jack insisted on everyone going to this mission and Ianto was rather worried about it since Jack was acting incredibly nervous and insisted on going over basic safety procedures with their property.<p>

Jack drove one SUV down to the Beacons with Ianto, Suzie, and Matt whilst Owen drove in the other with Gwen and Tosh. Andy and Jane stayed behind in Cardiff to watch the hub.

Once they reached the Brecon's Jack and the others started to set up camp, with Owen moaning the entire time, eventually Matt got so fed up he told Owen he'd set up his tent for him.

"What is that smell?" Owen yelled in frustration.

"That would be grass." Gwen replied frustrated.

Jack laughed. "The human race is unique in the fact that it goes camping. Celebrate your uniqueness."

"There's a good reason why we're the only shmucks to camp Jack. The aliens all figured out that it was pointless and disgusting." Owen kicked a tent pole again.

"We should play a game, who was the last person you snogged." Gwen said chirpily sitting next to Tosh at the firepit that Ianto built.

Jack almost groaned out loud remembering the last time they played this game.

"How old are you? 12? Who says snog anymore." Owen grumbled.

"Well mine was Rhys." She said happily, she'd tell everyone about her boyfriend. What about you Matt?"

"Me? Oh er, it was this girl I met last week, at a pub near my new place," Matt said shrugging.

"Just a kiss or…" Gwen trailed off suggestively.

"Just a kiss, we're supposed to be on a date tomorrow." He said pointedly.

"Well we'll try to get you back in time for this hot date." Jack grinned happy for Matt.

"What about you Tosh?"

Tosh looked uncomfortable. "It was Owen actually." She replied.

"What?"

"It was Christmas, there was mistletoe." Tosh elaborated and shrugged as if it meant nothing to her.

"I was your last snog?" Owen replied shocked. "Well bully for me."

"Owen?" Tosh said moving the game along.

"Jane." He grinned.

"What?" Jack spluttered, he didn't see that one.

Ianto smirked. "Well, she did almost knock you out after you tried it on with her."

"She punched you?" Jack laughed.

"It barely hurt." Owen muttered.

"She ended up treating you for a concussion." Ianto said happily, glad to see Owen get his comeuppance.

"How do you know Tea Boy, are you shagging her?" Owen asked hotly.

Ianto shook his head. "No, we're just friends, I helped her find her flat."

"What about you Jack?" Matt interrupted quickly.

"Are we counting non terrestrial lifeforms?" Jack joked.

"You're sick Harkness." Owen choked.

"I can never tell when he's lying." Gwen chuckled.

"What about you Ianto." Owen asked still trying to get back at him.

Ianto's happy mood disappeared in a flash. "It was Lisa." He said quietly.

"Who the hell is Lisa?" Owen snarked.

"Lisa was his girlfriend, she died in the Battle of Canary Wharf, the Cybermen tried to upgrade her." Jack answered so Ianto didn't have to lie.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Ianto." Tosh said sincerely touching his arm.

"Sorry mate." Owen said sounding suspiciously honest.

Ianto shrugged still looking down at his hands.

"I'm going to get some fire wood." Owen stood up and left quickly.

"I'll help." Gwen said feeling bad for starting the game.

"I'm going to check the equipment to see if there's any rift readings." Matt said after a moment with Tosh following him.

"You'll be okay." Jack patted Ianto on the knee.

"Yes sir." Ianto replied.

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><p>They sat in comfortable silence until Gwen came running back shouting they found a body in the woods.<p>

"Why now? Police canvassed these roadsides three times in the past 5 months and never found bodies." Jack said watching as Ianto wrapped crime scene tape around the area.

Owen looked up from the body. "Maybe they got interrupted."

"Hmm."

"Well it's not the latest missing person, victim is male." Owen said professionally. "Late 40s 50s, no blood spatter or blood pool suggesting this is a body dump."

"So he was dumping the body and got interrupted." Gwen added unnecessarily.

"Yes, thank you for summing up what I just said." Owen said rudely.

"Maybe it's a warning. Marking out their territory." Ianto said from where he had just finished with the tape.

"Cause of death?" Jack asked kneeling down.

"Can't tell, he's just a carcass. Organs are all stripped from the body, hopefully post mortem." Owen continued kneeling over the body.

"Weevils?" Tosh asked sounding unsure.

"Doubt it. Weevils don't finish their victims off this way." Owen replied.

Jack started when he heard the car engine.

They all ran after it, Owen asking the question that spurred everyone into chasing their SUVs as they trashed the campsite they set up.

"Damn it." Jack cursed, he ordered Suzie and Matt to stay behind just for this and it still happened. Jack and Ianto arrived before the others Gwen hot on their heels as she was a good distance runner.

"Matt!" Gwen broke off spotting their downed agent.

Owen rushed over, pushing Gwen not too gently aside to assess his patient.

"He's fine, got knocked out." Owen said sounding slightly relieved.

Matt groggily gained consciousness minutes later groaning at the pain in his head.

"What happened?" Jack asked.

"Got jumped from behind." He replied. "I can't believe I didn't hear them."

"What about Suzie?"

"No idea. I'm sorry." Matt said apologetically, feeling like a failure.

"Don't worry." Jack said although he was worrying, they had Suzie captive.

"SUV will be miles away now, gunning it at 90 miles an hour." Owen said grumpily as he finished checking over Matt and now they all scoured the campsite for salvageable equipment.

"Actually it's 3.4 miles west from here." Ianto said holding the hand held PDA that he had on him.

"Yeah hitting the motorway." Owen continued.

"It's been stationary for the past 4 minutes, I'll go as far to say it's parked." Ianto replied with a smirk.

"There's a small village there, the only one for miles." Gwen said consulting a map.

"This is suspicious." Tosh said warningly.

"Yes it is." Jack agreed. "Ianto, call Andy and Jane, get them here for backup if it's needed. In the meanwhile we need to find our SUV's."

Ianto had already pulled out his phone and dialled Jane's mobile and brought them up to date as they began the walk to the village of Brynnblaid.

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><p>The walk to the village took just over an hour with their phone reception failing almost before Ianto managed to finish calling Jane and Andy. Once they got near Jack sent Ianto, Tosh and Matt to find the SUVs as quickly as possible, whilst Jack took Owen and Gwen to the village houses itself. He warned Ianto and the others to be as vigilant as possible and not to let each other out of sight.<p>

Jack took Owen and Gwen to the houses, wanting to find Suzie as quickly as possible, Gwen found the first body and reacted violently to it, Owen said it was just like the body they found in the woods, organs and skeletal muscle stripped from the bone so only the husk was left.

When they reached the last house to check, Owen still having a further look at the first body Jack pushed Gwen to the other side of the door they were covering, a peak inside showed this was the one with the boy in it.

"Stay there, I'll go first." Jack ordered. He nodded to her and she opened the door as much as she could so Jack could get in.

The shotgun blast hit the wood of the door Jack having ducked out of the way almost before he even saw the boy, Gwen did what she had been told and stayed where she was luckily.

"Put the gun down, we're special ops." Gwen cried out to the boy.

"I thought you were them, I thought they were coming back for me." He cried in shock.

Jack kicked down the door properly, the flimsy lock and the damaged wood from the shotgun offering no resistance to his boot.

After hearing the boys sob story and learning again that there was a few other victims on the line as well as Owen running for them as soon as he heard the shotgun.

"We need to find out where their headquarters is." Owen said as they stood around the kitchen table, with the boy clutching his shotgun.

Jack snatched the shotgun out of his hands easily and set it carefully on the table, it wasn't the boys so there was no telling if it was used often, clean or in proper working order.

"Your job is to keep him alive." Jack said. "I'll find the headquarters."

"You can't leave us." Gwen protested.

"What about Ianto and the others, the plan was to meet back here with the SUVs." Owen said.

"Then meet them here," Jack replied knowing that in likeliness they were captured by now, his insides were churning in the unknown whilst knowing what could be happening to them.

"Suzie doesn't have time." Jack insisted.

"I agree, but we can't go in there half cocked, we do that we're all in trouble not just Suzie."

"They are probably watching us right now, it's their village."

"Their village?" Gwen noticed, "What do you mean?"

"There was one body in the pub, but there should be at least two people living there." Jack started.

"So the other could be the guy we found in the woods." Owen interjected.

"Each of these houses look like there should be at least two people living in them but we only found one body in one house, where is everyone else? The pub has had trade lately, where are the villagers?"

"They are probably victims as well." Gwen cried out angrily at Jack questioning it.

"Probably, don't assume. Assumptions like that can get you killed." Jack lectured. "Most important thing is to find Suzie, stop whatevers going on here and get this kid home."

"My names Kieran," He grumbled.

"The pub is easier to defend." Jack continued. "We'll set up base there."

"You do realise that this is the set for every zombie movie ever made right?" Owen said as they made their way over.

Jack helped board up the pub, remembering this time to lock the cellar door.

Gwen ran through everything they knew so far to try and find some sort of explanation or something they could use.

The lights of the pub turned off suddenly, casting them into almost total darkness, the creepy shuffling only caused to increase fear which was what they wanted, the front doors and side doors were pushed and smashed against from the outside to try and get in before a sudden silence that was even more creepy.

Owen, Gwen and Jack had a secure grip on their weapons covering each other and all points of access, the boy Kieran was tightly gripping the shotgun he got back but not in a defensible position, he was freaking out and scaring Gwen and Owen even more.

The entrance to the cellar was tried this time, and Jack spun to cover it with his gun as they tried to cave the doors in. Silence followed their defeat.

"Are they going to quit?" Gwen breathed as quiet as she could.

Jack and Owen didn't respond, their ears straining to hear any sounds.

Kieran stood up and pressed his back to the wall on the other side of the bar away from the external doors, his eyes wide and frightened trying to control his fearful panting.

The door to Kierans left suddenly gave and a shocked moment of stillness before the three members of Torchwood bolted into action, Kieran's arm was grabbed, he dropped the shotgun and batted the grip away and bolted away but tripped, he tried to scrabble forward but was seized from behind and dragged backwards. Jack managed to shoot over Kieran at the assailants trying to seize him, he heard several of the shots hit but Kieran was taken and the door shut after him. Since it was an internal door probably another staircase up to the staff accomadations they were in earlier or office it had bolts on the other side of the door and they were locked out.

"Shit, we lost him." Gwen cried out, "what now"

"We need to get him back, as well as Suzie. What else is there in this village? Gwen, do you have that map?"

Gwen nodded and took it out and spread it over a table, and focused her flashlight on it.

Jack scanned the layout on the map.

"Here." Owen spotted it first. "Some sort of big house, the scale is a lot bigger than these cottages."

"You think they could be holding them here. We've checked all these houses." Gwen said.

"It's logical." Jack agreed. "I hit one of them that took Kieran, I'm going to talk to him. You two need to head out now and try and catch up, don't get separated, don't even turn from each other for a second, these guys are quiet, and stealthy"

"Could they be using some tech to move like that?"

"No, it could just be practice. Ever met a ninja?"

Gwen shook her head trying not to laugh at the inappropriately timed joke.

"Get going, and keep your eyes open for the others. If you head through the woods here, it might give you a bit more cover." Jack showed them.

"I was thinking that. If they have lookouts we'd be able to get closer in the bracken and dense woods rather than waltz up the driveway." Owen said.

"Good get going." Jack turned from them giving them the map before heading to the door.

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><p>Ianto, Matt and Tosh headed to the other side of the village where there were a few houses in a row and expanse grassy areas of which the SUV was beyond. The screech of a fox startled them all, they all gripped their weapons, telling each other and themselves it was a fox or an animal.<p>

Ianto tried one of the front doors whilst Matt and Tosh tried one of the other doors, all were locked. Ianto went down the side of the row of houses, whilst Matt went down the opposite side with Tosh going through the alleyway in the middle. The area was silent giving an eerie feeling that played on all their senses and played on their fears. Each had their guns out and pointed in front of them.

Ianto crept around the side of the house trying to slow his breathing, he took his gun from its relaxed position as he went around the side of the house, as he got to the back of the houses, he didn't see Matt or Tosh yet, he glanced at the PDA he had and saw the signal was coming over the hill, the scream startled him again and he almost dropped the PDA, he gripped his gun in both hands, PDA back in his pocket, trying to find the source of the scream, just a fox he told himself. He startled when he turned to the side and saw several dead animals hanging from a hook. He closed his eyes willing his heart to stop racing, he spotted Tosh come into sight, her gun drawn and alert.

Ianto nodded at her, and she spun on her heel and looked back into the alley behind her.

"Wheres Matt?" Ianto said as he came closer, he looked down to the other side of the houses where Matt should be emerging but he wasn't coming into view. "The SUV should be beyond the hill." He added unneccesarily.

"Maybe Matt found something?" Tosh said as Matt still didn't emerge.

Ianto moved closer to the end of the house, noticing Tosh trying the back doors of the house closest to her, she tried to give the door a few kicks to open it but they were all locked.

Ianto reached the end of the row and saw there was nothing there, it was silent, where had Matt gone? There had been no sign of struggle, he turned back to Tosh and saw she was gone as well.

Ianto tried to bite down on the fear, he had seen Tosh seconds ago, she was in his peripheral vision, how had she disappeared. He turned towards where he had last seen Tosh and moved quickly, she probably went back down the alley he told himself.

She hadn't, Ianto looked down the alley and there was nothing there, Ianto breathed deeply trying to think of a plan, if Tosh and Matt had been taking so suddenly without a hint of warning to alert them he had no chance now, Ianto deduced that maybe the best thing was to get the SUV like planned to help Jack help the others. Ianto didn't know what to do, he wanted to help Matt and Tosh but Tosh has been a field agent for years now, and Matt had a background in intensive various field training, Ianto had barely finished the training Jack gave him a few weeks back, he was in no position to be of any help. If he could get word back to jack that they had been taken he'd be more prepared right?

The choice was taken from Ianto when moments later he saw something out of his peripheral vision as well as a swoosh of cloth, he darted towards the source gun trained, and found nothing, he felt it again behind him, the feelings of paranoia crept up and he fought down the despair that had crept up and tried to focus on where the assailant was coming from, he tried to focus on his hearing like Jack taught him but if he believed that there could be two of them. He was pushed from behind, his gun falling from his grip to brace his fall, he turned as he fell to meet his attacker and saw darkness.

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><p>When Ianto awoke, it was when he was being dumped into a darkened room, he groggily sat on the floor as he heard the door lock behind him, the dull thud of a bolt being slid home adding to his helplessness. He focused on his surroundings around him, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting, he noticed the room was quite big, but dirty and full of random things, including a fridge for some reason, it reminded him like an old style ice house that was converted.<p>

Ianto crept forward and found Matt and Tosh lying on the floor, both still unconscious. Ianto checked their pulses and made sure they were in the recovery position and breathing comfortably. When he checked Matt he stumbled over another body he carefully looked at them to try and figure out who it was, his hands found long curly hair, it was Suzie, his hand found something wet and sticky around her temple, she had a bad contusion on her head that was probably the reason she was still unconscious, he checked her vitals were fine before backing away. He scrambled around for a bit longer and found a hook to be used as a weapon and sat down by Tosh to protect them until they woke up.

What seemed like hours later, but in reality ten minutes or so Suzie started to stir. She rolled onto her back and bit back a groan, a hand shakily coming to her forehead.

"Suzie?" Ianto asked quietly, coming closer.

"Ianto?" She sounded groggy, but recognised his voice.

"You got a bad hit on your head, I can't see much the light's terrible." Ianto told her. "Tosh and Matt are here too. Some sort of basement, the air quality is bad and sound reverberates slightly."

"You're rambling." She groaned.

"Sorry."

"Don't be," Suzie replied. "Help me up."

"You shouldn't get up."

"Tough, we're in a hostile situation." Suzie slowly got up with Ianto's help.

"Tosh and Matt are still out, hopefully they'll be up soon." Ianto said once she was sitting comfortably.

"Were you knocked out?" Suzie asked.

"Not really, I was awake by the time they shut the doors on us." He admitted. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," Suzie replied. "There are some things you just can't control, this being one of them, we'll get out of this." She patted his hand.

Tosh and Matt woke up by the time Ianto had managed to help Suzie get rid of the majority of the blood on the side of her face with the handkerchief that he always kept on him, it wasn't too deep of a cut luckily, but Suzie was extremely groggy and unfocused.

Tosh immediately started to look for a way out. Matt helped her check the room out whilst Ianto checked the light fixture on the ceiling. The light had no bulb, whilst Matt scoured the room, Ianto ended up noticing the piles of shoes leading to a frightening realisation as to what that meant.

The locks to the door rattled, Ianto and Matt darted to either side of the door whilst Tosh took a defensive position in the room, Suzie not being as able footed slid on the floor towards some cover.

A shot gun entered the room before the middle aged woman who held it did. She was visibly shaking with fear apologising and asking for their health saying she couldn't help them. She admitted it was all for the harvest. She frogmarched them all upstairs by the shotgun, and led them into a room that smelled of death and decay surrounded by heavy plastic coversheets acting as flimsy doorways.

"Whats the harvest?" Matt whispered as they walked up.

"It doesn't sound good." Suzie admitted, leaning on Ianto for more support than she'd admit. "Considering what we found in the fridge downstairs, they are harvesting the people that are going missing."

"We're meat." Ianto muttered.

"We'll get out." Suzie comforted him.

Ianto nodded.

Moments later the full realisation of what was happening crashed around them, they were humans feasting on human flesh, cannibals.

Tosh, Ianto, Suzie and Matt stood in a line, their hands tied behind their backs their two captives a couple stood before them.

"Meat needs to be tenderised first." The man said as he surveyed them, making comments that they were all good stock and healthy, making jokes about Chinese food, Ianto stopped himself from correcting them and telling him Tosh was Japanese.

Ianto whispered to Tosh and Suzie that were stood either side of him as the man turned towards his partner. Tosh looked scared whilst Suzie understood his plan.

The man placed the baseball bat back on the side the threats firmly given to his victims, he stalked forwards eyeing the women carefully, he stepped to Tosh first slowly stating about tender meat as he caressed her, Tosh looked towards Ianto not wanting to consider what fears he was inflicting on her. Ianto nodded seriously at her reminding her of what he told her to do.

He moved onto Ianto next, going to grab Ianto but not expecting the full on grin that Ianto gave him. Ianto headbutted the man Tosh and Matt took the incentive and darted past, Matt pushed the woman violently into the wall to stop her pursuing them.

Suzie pushed into the man taking him down hoping Ianto would run away with the others, Ianto did but the woman had regained balance and bodily threw herself at Ianto's retreating back and took him down in a rugby tackle. Suzie tried to hold the man down but he threw her aside and stood up, he stalked past Suzie giving her a kick for good measure, he grabbed the scruff of Ianto neck and pushed him against a table face down, he said something in his ear and left.

Both Suzie and Ianto were forced to their knees and a bag over their heads in the room. They could sense that more and more people were entering the room the quiet hum of voices as they passed through the room. Another person was thrown in beside them, but they had no idea who it was.

Tosh and Matt made a mad dash for the woods, Matt followed Tosh realising that Ianto and Suzie were not following. Matt heard them being followed by the man that seemed to be leading the show, he was shouting out to them.

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><p>Owen and Gwen were cutting through the woods up to the main house, they had passed a main road where they saw the flashing blue lights of a police car.<p>

Gwen flagged down the car eagerly, Owen restraining from rolling his eyes. Gwen spoke with the officer, thinking that he was there for the same reasons as they were. The officer was a native welsh, and said that he was there as part of the village meeting at the big house tonight.

Owen felt that it was strange coincidence, but figured that if there was an alien influence here, this officer was just showing up for the same date they had each month not knowing any better.

Tosh and Matt were making a run through the woods, hands tied awkwardly behind their backs, trying to evade the man chasing them. Matt saw Tosh take a tumble and panic when she struggled up, but she righted herself, but they lost precious seconds. Matt was taken down by a rugby tackle, a punch to the head making his earlier slight concussion worse, he tried to clear his head as the man got off him but when he managed to stagger onto his knees, he could barely see where he had gone through his blurred vision.

The man had caught up with Tosh and instead of what he done to the other man he straddled her, both meaty hands on her neck and started to strangle her, it was an intimate way for someone to die to have that persons life literally slipping away in their fingers. He didn't notice others approaching until a cold muzzle of a gun was pressed to his temple, he carried on strangling the Asian girl anyway.

"Get off her bastard." Owen shouted angrily.

Owen kicked him off Tosh roughly, his weapon trained on his as he helped Tosh up. Tosh told them quickly everything she knew, that Ianto and Suzie were still back there and Matt had escaped with her.

"It's the Harvest." The man had claimed.

"Whatever." Gwen barked roughly. "You can arrest him now." She addressed the police man.

The copper didn't move.

Gwen repeated herself.

"Arrest my own uncle." The copper laughed.

"Going to arrest me are you Huw?" Evan laughed.

The Police officer joined in his uncles laughing, his gun pointed at Owen's head, Gwen belatedly got her own weapon drawn at the Police officer and a stalemate was starting.

"Shoot him." Evan demanded.

Owen shook his head slightly at Gwen who was in tears at the situation. There was no way they could get out of this alive if someone shot. So Owen allowed them to be captured.

Ianto and Suzie sensed the presence of all the others that Evan mentioned, the bags over their heads were roughly torn off and they were greeted by the sight of almost two dozen middle aged men and women some carrying bats or sticks, each one of them looking at them akin to hunger. They moved forward as one and Ianto and Suzie tried to protect their defenceless bodies by the weapons and punches and kicks that were delivered on them, tenderising the meat.

When Owen, Gwen, Tosh and Matt were all dragged into the slaughter house they saw all the villagers sitting or standing around the room, all waiting for Evan to return.

"Who are these people?"

"Who else are they? We all live here." Evan chuckled darkly.

"But all the villagers are dead." Gwen said naively.

"This is our village, this is our Harvest." Evans wife Helen told them proudly.

"Only in the countryside you sick fucks." Owen said bitterly as he realised they were all in it.

They were all pushed into the kitchen that was surrounded by large plastic sheets stained in blood, the boy Kieran was sitting on the floor, his arms and legs tied up.

Gwen asks after the boy as Tosh and Matt looked around for their missing teammates.

"Where's Ianto and Suzie? What have you done with them?" Tosh cried out.

Evan backhanded her, but Tosh looked back defiantly.

"They are just meat." Evan chuckled mirthlessly, nodding at his partner/wife who knelt down and dragged someone into view pulling the bag from their head.

They saw Ianto, his face bruised and bloody from a vicious beating. The woman pushed him forward so his back was against the table he was next to, his face contorted in pain giving Owen the assumption that ribs were bruised at the very least. The woman Helen bent back down and dragged someone else up, it was Suzie who looked in a worse condition, Ianto was alert whilst Suzie seemed to be fighting to stay awake, her eyes were drooping and rolling slightly, as blackness threatened to take her under.

Evan walked over to Ianto and Suzie, he picked up a meat cleaver that was lying on the table.

"Time to be bled." He stated darkly as he grabbed Ianto.

The others stared in shock at what was happening around them, they were going to have to watch this.

"Like veal," He stated as he grasped the back of Ianto's neck and pulled, making Ianto's neck more accessible, Ianto made a small whimper through the gag as he knew what was coming.

"It takes longer, but it makes it taste so much better." He said longingly pressing the meat cleaver to Ianto's neck.

"You sick fuck." Suzie barked from next to them where Helen was holding her hair to keep her head from lolling around.

"I'm busy here pet." Evan chuckled.

"Right, make yourself look big eh, go for the boy who you tied up and got your mates to beat up, pathetic aren't you." Suzie snarled at him. "Does it make you feel big tying him up and threatening to kill him? Compensating for something are we?" She smirked.

"Shut it you bitch." Evan growled turning on Suzie pushing Ianto away from him, he raised the meat cleaver to her face to shut her up.

"Or what?" She asked defiantly.

The glass bowl on the table began to shake slightly, the light fixtures and loose objects also started to shake.

"What is this?" Evan asked. He focused on Suzie who had lipped him ignoring the shaking.

"I'd imagine," Suzie started as the shaking grew more intense. "That it's the end of your little sick factory here."

"I don't think so bitch." Evan growled pressing the cleaver to her throat.

A loud crash accompanied one of the walls crumbling inwards, by a heavy duty old style tractor that crashed into the side of the house, Jack jumped out of the cab and began to shoot everyone whilst they were still in shock, he only did shoot to injure shots. Jack shot Evan first in the leg before aiming at the other villagers.

Once the smoke cleared and Jack surveyed the damage taking a last shot at the bent copper who was reaching for his gun. Jack cut the ties that were binding Owen and the other Torchwood members closest to him.

Ianto's muffled cries all drew their attention. Owen barrelled past Jack to Ianto and Owen, none to gently punching Evan who was still conscious.

Jack rushed after him and drew Ianto to him, thanking whoever there was that he was okay.

"Shit, Jack we need some clean material here, Suzies bleeding out." Owen said his hand already pressed to her neck wound.

Jack had been taking the gag and ties off Ianto and froze in shock. "What?"

"Gwen get to that coppers car, you must have a first aid kit in there?" Owen asked,

"Yeah, there has to be." Gwen agreed rushing to the police officer and fishing his keys from the pocket before running from the room, Tosh going with her to cover her after taking Jack's spare weapon from him.

Moments later Gwen and Tosh were back. Gwen was carrying the first aid kit, whilst Tosh had the found the house phone, maybe the only one in the village that actually worked and called for ambulance, she also called Andy and Jane who had gone to their original camp site and were trying to trace them.

Owen ordered Gwen to open the kit and hand him all the bandages and worked as hard and fast as he could on the cut on her neck.

* * *

><p>An hour later the ambulance and police teams were going over the entire village, an ambulance had already taken Suzie and Owen to the nearest hospital in the hopes of helping her. Ianto was sitting in the open boot of the SUV waiting to go home, whilst Tosh was speaking with a paramedic nearby.<p>

"I need to talk to Evan." Gwen said to Jack earlier within earshot of Evan who smirked. "I need to know why this happened."

Jack had pulled her to one side. "Firstly desperation gives him the advantage in any interrogation, so no you don't speak with him."

"It's too much Jack. All of this?"

"Listen, anything he will say to you is going to play on your fears, they are sick people Gwen, okay. Just accept that."

Jack watched as Gwen watched Evan be lead away Evan had taken a sinister glee that Gwen was so bothered by his operation, and grinned at her happily as he was pushed into the back seat of a police car. Jack was oh so very tempted to give UNIT a call and find them a nice cell for the rest of their lives.

Once Jack decided they were of no more use here he gave Tosh the keys to the other SUV and put Matt and Gwen in the car with her and took Ianto with him. He knew that Ianto had bruised ribs so had tried to make him comfortable. Once everyone had been taken home Jack went to the hospital that Suzie and Owen were at.

* * *

><p>Once inside he found Owen.<p>

"What's happening?"

"Jack." Owen stood up. "It's not good. The cut on her neck is closed now, took some stitches but shes taken some nasty hits on her head, the pressure on her brain is too high, if it creeps up any more the next option is surgery to relieve the pressure."

"Okay."

"But, she's also taken some nasty body hits, her kidneys, liver, lungs pretty much any organ has been hit, so her body is in shock, we're keeping an eye on all her major organs, in case of them going into shut down. Jack she's in a bad way, I'm not sure if she'll make it." Owen admitted.

"You said she was beaten, they did the same to Ianto" Jack asked.

"I've already spoken to Tosh, she oversaw the paramedics checking him over, Ianto himself admitted that Suzie kept trying to attract the attention. Ianto is fine, he's got three cracked ribs and bruises but I don't think he's in any danger."

Jack nodded. "Is there anything we have that could help Suzie?"

"No," Owen sighed. "It's the pressure on her brain that's the worst. There's a fear of infection but we've got her on antibiotics and given her a tetanus shot just in case."

"You're going to be here a while." Jack stated.

"Yes, you?"

"Oh yeah." Jack took a seat next to Suzies bed in the ICU.

Several hours later Suzie crashed and Jack was forced to jump out of the way as Owen and a team barrelled into the room to help her.

Jack was forced from the room and paced the corridor as he heard the voices inside and the pitiful sounds from the heart monitor. Ten minutes later Owen emerged.

"We're taking her up to surgery now." Owen said as the bed was rolled out the room. "We can't wait any longer, she crashed, but we got her stable, but the pressure in her head has increased too rapidly, she could have an intercranial hematoma, we need to minimise the risk. I'll call you when we are out of surgery. Go home Jack. I'll stay with her." Owen said as the lift doors shut on Jack.

Jack sighed and left the hospital driving slowly across town, not knowing where to go, or what to do, it was mid afternoon now, they had been at the hospital for hours, he had told the team not to go to work today. To recover from the nights events, but asked Andy and Jane to keep an eye on the rift monitors and to call Tosh and Gwen in for backup if needed.

Jack was bored of driving around so went back to the hospital and lingered around the waiting room they directed him to when he learnt that Owen and Suzie were still in theatre.

"Jack." Owen had come through the door, he was wearing hospital scrubs.

"What happened? She OK."

Owen shook his head. "She crashed again, mid surgery. It took some time to stabilise her, but we did. There was evidence of a small hematoma in her brain when we tried to relieve the pressure, I've sent for more scans and I got these."

Owen opened the file that Jack noticed he was carrying and put them on the light board. He turned the light on and Jack saw the three images that Owen was showing him.

"Suzie has slipped into a coma, with these scans I don't think she'll even pull through."

"But." Jack stuttered.

"She must have had a hematoma either during transport or before that's why the pressure wasn't sky high. But crashing twice, once during surgery caused complications, shes on a respirator and her brain functions are minimal, she's brain dead Jack." Owen told him quickly.

"But, she." Jack stared at the scans trying to make sense of it. "She was supposed to be okay." He whispered.

"Come on, I can take you to her." Owen said, "And I want to call the others in, to say goodbye. Rare we get to say goodbye."

Owen took Jack to Suzie's room where she was attached to a heart monitor, respirator and an EEG to monitor her brain waves.

Jack noticed that the respirator was forcing her lungs to breathe and the EEG readings were flatlining, the heart monitor beeping slowly.

Jack sat by her side.

"I'll give you a minute." Owen left the room.

"I'm sorry. I was supposed to save you. I thought by getting rid of the glove, that you would be safe." Jack said after a few moments, he picked up her hand, she was a bit cold.

He watched her face for any sign of life, the tube down her throat and the electrodes across her forehead belied that evidence.

Owen came back, saying that he called everyone over to say their goodbyes.

The team all entered separately and said their goodbyes to Suzie, none of them disturbed Jack who was sitting silently staring at Suzies unmoving face.

Ianto was the last to enter and stood by the end of her bed.

"I'm sorry sir, this is my fault." Ianto said after several minutes silence.

It took Jack several seconds to realise that Ianto had spoken to him. "How on Earth is it your fault?"

"I was there too, but she…I should be in the same position as her."

"She saved you." Jack said finally.

"She did. She said that she couldn't let me die. She thought she was on borrowed time, like she was supposed to be already dead, she said that she wouldn't let Evan kill me. He had the cleaver on me, she distracted him from me. It should be me that's dying."

Jack stood up, stumbling a tiny bit as he readjusted from sitting down for so long.

"She saved your life Ianto. It was her choice to make." Jack told him hugging him. "She was a hero."

Ianto hugged Jack back as tightly as he could with his sore ribs.

"Do you want a minute alone with her?" Jack asked wiping Iantos tears away quickly before he wiped away his own.

Ianto nodded and Jack left the room.

"Is he okay?" Owen asked as Jack stepped out.

"Survivors guilt." Jack muttered, knowing what that felt like.

"For what?" Gwen asked confused.

"Suzie and Ianto went through the same thing." Tosh explained. "Ianto was very brave out there. He headbutted Evan, then pushed Helen aside, but she grabbed him, which was how Matt and I escaped. I think Suzie knew she couldn't run she had a concussion already, so Suzie jumped on Helen to give Ianto time to run but Evan recovered quite quickly." Tosh giggled slightly at the memory of Ianto grinning and headbutting Evan.

Jack smiled. "Brave man. It's always the quiet ones that surprise you."

"Wow, Tea Boys got balls." Owen said in awe. "And no Jack, don't say you've seen them, want to see them or anything like that please." He said quickly as Jack opened his mouth.

Jack smiled again. "I wasn't actually. But Ianto's full of surprises."

* * *

><p>Reviews!<p> 


	10. The End of Suzie Costello

**AN: Here's the next chapter, dealing with the aftermath of Countrycide and Suzie's death. As well as some nice Janto goodness. :) **

**A big thank you to everyone that has reviewed and for those adding this story to their alerts and fave stories, thank you all!**

**#**

**Chapter 10: Suzie Costello.**

With the advice from various experienced Doctors in the hospital as well as Owens advice Suzie's life support was turned off once everyone said their goodbyes. Suzie like many Torchwood operatives had a living will; if she were ever to fall into a vegetative state needing the constant use of a respirator or lack of brain activity then her life support would be turned off as to her wishes.

Jack decided to be the one to do it, since he was the one that was responsible for her, and had tried to give her extra time. He pressed a chaste kiss to her lips as he said his final goodbye to her and sent a silent prayer that she wouldn't just meet the darkness, he turned the machine off after a minute or two.

The team dispersed in a sombre mood.

#

Ianto had gone straight home after saying goodbye to Suzie, he knew that Owen was likely to hit the pub as soon as he organised Suzie's body to be moved to the hub. Ianto offered to deal with the arrangements, but Owen told him sternly to go rest at home. So Ianto went home he called his sister for something to do to fill the silence of the flat, he spoke with both his niece Mica and nephew David apologising that he couldn't make their usual Sunday dinner together that his sister Rhiannon insisted on him attending once he moved back to Cardiff, he had only been to a few, mainly since Lisa had died and he started to recover, there was no way he could let his sister see him beaten like this especially since he was supposed to be a civil worker.

He said a quick goodbye to his sister when he heard the door being knocked on, it was getting late now. He put the phone on the coffee table and went to the door just as it was knocked on again. He saw through the spyhole that it was Jack.

"Sir?" Ianto threw open the door almost dropping his jaw in shock at the state his usually sober Captain was in. Jack was clearly blindingly drunk.

"Hey Yan!" Jack grinned happily.

"You're drunk." Ianto said checking that he was right.

Jack looked indignant for a moment. "Yes, so? I can get drunk if I want to. It's not going to last long, so might as well enjoy it as long as I can." Jack babbled before he pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on, more likely holding himself up with and stumbled inside.

Ianto took Jack's coat off him before Jack crashed on Ianto's sofa. Ianto hung the coat on a hook by the front door and took Jack's boots off for him since he doubted Jack could have done it right then, he disliked people wearing shoes in his flat since he wanted to keep it nice and clean ever since he redecorated.

Jack tried to help take his boots off but Ianto just brushed him off.

"Why did she have to die?" Jack asked pitifully.

"That's life isn't it?" Ianto agreed bitterly sitting next to Jacks feet. "You live then you die."

"God I wish sometimes." Jack muttered to himself. Ianto frowned confused by the statement.

"Why are you here sir?" Ianto asked after a few moments pause seeing Jack's eyes flitter shut.

Jack opened his eyes again and focused on Ianto. "Stop calling me sir."

"Fine, Jack."

"I want to make sure you're okay?" He said as if a question.

"Drunk?" Ianto smirked.

"Well I had a few drinks with Owen, then went home, drank all my scotch in my office, then decided that I haven't checked up on you, which I meant to do earlier."

Ianto carefully noted the way he mentioned home, and then his office. Ianto knew that Jack had a bunker under his office but assumed that he only stayed there because he needed to some nights.

"I'm just fine." Ianto assured him.

Jack nodded.

Ianto knew it wasn't the real reason why Jack was here but didn't push it.

"Are you hungry?" Ianto asked after several minutes silence when Jack stared blankly at the TV that was on mute.

Jack shook his head. "I was supposed to save her. I thought she'd be OK. She's supposed to be my second." Jack spoke to himself mainly, liking the feel of Ianto offering support by rubbing his calf.

"Train someone else I guess to be second, but you can't control everything." Ianto offered.

Jack shrugged. "Never remembered Gwen being so annoying else it'll be her." He said thinking of who to train to be the second.

Ianto bit back a laugh. "Thought you had a thing for her." He admitted. "Since you push her so hard, and let her get away with things."

"I know she can be an amazing operative." Jack said wanting the Gwen Cooper he knew back. "But she's not there yet, heck I'd give Torchwood to Andy over Gwen right now."

"Give her more time." Ianto said soothingly.

Jack nodded and pulled one of Ianto's cushions closer so his head was actually resting on it.

"Do you think Gwen has a thing for me?" Jack asked searchingly.

Ianto bit back a smile seeing as Jack was looking right at him. "Yes, she does."

Jack rolled his eyes.

"You're not pleased with that?" Ianto grinned.

"No, she's got a boyfriend." Jack replied sulkily.

"But you are heroic to her. Knight in shining armour that every girl dreams of."

"I'm not a hero." Jack shot back. "Shes going to realise that and hate me for it."

"Sometimes the right thing isn't the easy thing." Ianto said.

"When did you become so wise?" Jack smiled.

"Paraphrasing Spiderman, and Harry Potter." Ianto smirked.

Jack chuckled realising that.

"What would you do if you had the chance to repeat things, like mistakes you've made." Jack asked carefully.

Ianto thought about it. "Would I take that day off work and keep Lisa away from Canary Wharf? I guess that's something that is attractive to a lot of people."

Jack hummed in agreement.

"But you can't do that. Mistakes are made to learn from them, my Mam told me that."

Jack smiled.

"How could you even do that? Time Travel? Aren't there consequences? Grandfather paradox, you go back in time to stop something terrible happening but end up preventing your own birth or something." Ianto continued seeing that Jack really wanted a decent answer.

"You could create a paradox," Jack added. "Sometimes people have to die in a particular time or place."

Ianto nodded in agreement. "Why do you ask?"

Jack shrugged. "I always screw up second chances."

Ianto's hand had been idly stroking Jacks leg the entire conversation and when Ianto realised he drew it back quickly holding his hands on his knees. Jack smirked a little at the movement.

"Are we having a memorial for Suzie?" Ianto asked.

"Yes, she has no other family, so it'll just be us."

"No family?"

"Her father is still alive but she doesn't like him." Jack added sadly.

Ianto nodded glumly.

"If I have to die in Torchwood, which given its reputation is incredibly likely, I'd want it to be good, like Suzie, saving someone, saving the world." Ianto said out loud minutes later.

It was how Ianto is supposed to die, trying to stop an alien race from taking millions of children away to be used in an intergalactic drug trade, and then dying to seal the rift. Jack wondered and not for the first time that he was being incredibly selfish by trying to save Ianto and the others. It didn't save Suzie, although she didn't get obsessed with the glove and murder people. Maybe he saved Suzie's soul. Jack was determined to save Ianto, Tosh and Owen, give them more time that they deserved.

Ianto looked at Jack noticing he hadn't replied but was staring intently at Ianto, most of his drunken state disappeared.

"Death by toaster would be embarrassing." Jack finally said closing his eyes as he remembered Tosh's goodbye video.

Iantos eyebrows furrowed slightly at the pain that went with that statement on Jacks face.

"If I do, just…Can you make sure my sister and her family are safe." Ianto asked hesitantly minutes later.

"Naturally." Jack replied instantly, sounding surprised that Ianto would think he would do anything less.

"Thank you."

"You didn't have to ask Ianto." Jack told him. "What does she think you do?"

"Civil servant."

Jack chuckled. "That's not going to last long."

"I know. I try to visit on Sundays, it's usually the best day for the rift." Ianto shrugged.

"You should have said." Jack raised his head to look at Ianto properly. "I'll make sure you get Sundays off, we got plenty of staff now."

"Why have you hired the extra staff? When I erm…applied for the job." Jack snorted at that. "You said there were no vacancies, and yet 6 months later you've hired 4 more people."

"I wasn't being untruthful when I said that to you." Jack turned onto his back, his legs bending so that his feet were slightly tucked under Ianto's thigh which Ianto didn't mind curiously enough. "At the time even before that I wanted a small team. Torchwood Cardiff has only ever had the funding to have 4 or 5 members of staff, I was keeping that going but I guess somewhere along the line that number of staff has never really worked out when we have a serious situation on our hands. When Alex," Jack paused and huffed a breath.

"The leader of Torchwood Cardiff before you?" Ianto asked unnecessarily.

"The night he died, I came back from dealing with the Millennium bug and found the others on the floor around the hub all dead, Alex just sitting there waiting for me." Jack sighed. "He told me that the 21st Century was when everything changed and Torchwood wasn't ready. It was an alien device, he must have seen the future."

"Your little motto." Ianto said.

Jack nodded. "Told me to do them proud, make Torchwood ready, it's why I've always been particular about who I employed."

"Did he tell you what was coming?"

Jack shook his head. "No, but ever since the century turned the number of alien attacks are on the increase, and getting more serious, there will be one that we might not be able to deal with. Or the cost is too high." Jacks voice went dead, the 456 cost him Torchwood, Ianto and his grandson, his life really. His own brother tore Torchwood down the middle.

"We'll be ready." Ianto said sincerely squeezing Jack's hand.

Jack smiled.

"Come on, you can stay here." Ianto said letting go of Jacks hand and standing up.

"It's fine. I'll go." Jack said automatically. He needed to be near Ianto after losing Suzie, he had tried to keep a respectable distance from the Welshman but he needed him when the pain of losing Suzie was too much to bear.

Jack sat up shaking his head to clear it, he stood up and nearly swayed over.

"Not quite sober yet." Ianto smirked using his hand to stabilise Jack.

Jack rolled his eyes. "I have a very fast metabolism, drinking usually doesn't affect me much."

"I guess drinking a brewery helps get you drunk then."

"Didn't drink that much." Jack protested.

"Owen texted me saying you'd have probably died of alcohol poisoning." Ianto rolled his eyes.

Jack shrugged, he had once died of alcohol poisoning, he didn't really remember much of it.

"You can stay here." Ianto insisted.

"On the sofa?"

"It's not comfortable at all. You can stay in my bed, you can behave right?"

"You know if you really wanted to get me into bed, all you had to do was ask." Jack leered as he followed Ianto.

Ianto snorted. "I can arrange a harassment case."

"It's not harassment if the other party enjoys it." Jack deadpanned.

"I do enjoy it." Ianto replied with a smirk leaving Jack slightly shocked at his forwardness.

Ianto pushed Jack lightly onto the bed. "You can undress, you're not too drunk right?" Ianto teased as he pulled the covers back.

Jack rolled his eyes and took off his shirt throwing it at Ianto in retaliation.

Ianto laughed and caught the shirt.

Jack undressed to his boxers and crawled under the covers, closing his eyes and sighing in peace as he was back in Ianto's bed, not quite how he wanted but things between them seemed so much better.

Ianto undressed and used the bathroom before turning off the lights and getting into bed too.

"Must say it's a little unusual to have a man in my bed." Ianto commented lightly.

Jack chuckled. "Only a little? Something to share Mr Jones?"

"Well maybe once or twice before have shared a bed with a guy." Ianto admitted.

Jack never knew this. "Oooh, tell me more."

Ianto laughed. "Not like that. Drunken night out and we fell into the same bed, I recall he literally kicked me out of bed the next morning when he realised I got into his bed accidentally."

Jack laughed. "Accidentally on purpose?"

"No, never liked men before." He whispered.

"Before?" Jack caught.

Jack felt Ianto shrug but say nothing.

"It shouldn't be about whether it's a guy or a girl." Jack said quietly. "Just the person, I've never considered myself gay, yet Owen's always trying to get me to confess it."

"He asked me the same thing." Ianto admitted.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he said that you were making designs on me and I should be aware." Ianto snorted. "He thought I was naïve."

Jack grimaced in the dark.

"Yes, I've been aware since day one that your hired me for how I look." Ianto commented offhandly.

"That's not why I hired you." Jack insisted. "Admittedly you're gorgeous but it was how you handled yourself, with the weevil, making your job offer, and catching Myfanwy. I'd never hire someone just to sleep with them." Jack insisted.

"Right."

"I was trying to distance myself from Torchwood One, after what they did. I thought I lost someone I knew there, I reacted negatively to you because of something that wasn't your fault. When we caught Myfanwy I decided to give you a chance to prove yourself and I've never regretted it."

"Even after Lisa?"

"Nope, not even then." Jack said honestly. "You love her, you were trying to save her, people I know have done worse things. I've done worse things for less."

"I didn't want to betray you like that, it was killing me." Ianto admitted softly.

Jack reached over and rubbed Ianto soothingly on the arm. "I know."

"We better go to sleep, we got work in the morning." Ianto said.

"You're not, you've got cracked ribs."

"I'll be fine." Ianto insisted.

"No,"

"I'll die of boredom here. I won't do any carrying."

"Stubborn."

"Persistant."

"You got that right." Jack snorted belately realising he still had a hand on Ianto's arm, he drew it back and settled to sleep for a few hours.

#

The next morning Jack woke up just after 6am, he had slept for quite a long time by his standards, he realised that he had snuck over to Ianto's side of the bed and cuddled with him during the night, Jack carefully removed the arm that was draped over him and cautiously moved to a respectable distance away from him. Jack took a few moments and studied his face. Ianto always looked so young and innocent when asleep, like he hadn't a care in the world. Jack loved watching Ianto sleeping.

Reluctantly Jack climbed carefully out of the bed and turned off Ianto's alarm clock. Jack dressed quickly and left Ianto's flat.

When Ianto came to the hub a few hours later only Jack, Tosh and Owen were in, the latter two were finishing their reports of the incident in the Brecon Beacons.

Ianto threw Jack the dirtiest look he could muster whilst Jack smiled innocently at him.

Owen and Tosh saw it but shrugged it off.

"I can't believe you turned my alarm off." Ianto hissed after he gave Owen and Tosh a coffee and went into Jack's office.

"To give you a few more hours sleep, I don't regret it. Nothings really happened here lately. Still waiting for Gwen's report and give Owen a nudge he's almost done. The rest is here." Jack said happily as he pointed to a neat pile of reports on the corner of the desk.

Ianto picked them up and saw that Jack had already counter signed them.

"See." Jack said smugly.

Ianto rolled his eyes and left.

"Wait, hang on. Don't I get a coffee?" Jack asked nervously.

Ianto turned and looked at Jack searchingly making the immortal man nervous. "Of course you do, it's on Tosh's desk." Ianto said before leaving.

Jack chuckled and almost skipped over to retrieve it.

"You finally get into Tea Boy's pants then?" Owen muttered as Jack passed him.

Jack glared at him. "No."

Owen chuckled. "Losing your touch Harkness." He jibed.

"I'm not rising to the bait Owen." Jack said as he picked up his coffee and left again.

#

Two days later Suzie's memorial service was held and the entire Torchwood team gathered to lay a commemorative plaque for her in the local cemetery, her body had to be cryogenically frozen as Torchwood rules dictated.

Once the memorial was over they all headed to the pub together and had a few drinks in her honour, reminiscing about old missions and nights out. They wandered off one by one, Jack left with Ianto and ended up staying with Ianto again, not wanting to be alone.

#

Reviews please!

#


	11. Fairies

**AN: Here's the next update, based on Small Worlds. It had always annoyed me how Gwen was in this episode and slightly how Jack was, so hopefully I've done them all justice in this chapter.**

**A massive thank you for every one that has reviewed and added me to their alerts. I've been so inspired by each and every review, so thank you.**

**Chapter 11: Fairies.**

Ianto had carefully started to observe Jack closer than ever since the mission in the Brecon's, Jack had come to rely more and more on Ianto it appeared, they often had time out of work together, just talking or having a drink together, and Ianto was carefully placing together all the tiny clues that Jack didn't even realise that he was leaving behind.

When Jack got the invitation from Estelle, his heart soared and constricted at the same time. He eagerly accepted it, this time wanting to take Ianto with him since the last time Gwen had scoffed and sniggered over Estelle's work. Even though she was wrong he disliked Gwen treating her like that. He was so wrapped up with seeing Estelle again that he never chastised her for her behaviour.

Ianto made sure that Jack was on time for the presentation as well so they listened to the entire speech, Ianto also carefully watched the entire thing whilst Jack wistfully watched Estelle.

"She always gets it wrong." Jack commented as she finished her presentation.

Ianto didn't reply and they stood up, Jack striding over and hugging Estelle before pressing a warm kiss to her head and holding her close.

Jack insisted on seeing all the photos she had taken and so Estelle took Jack and Ianto to her house.

Ianto almost immediately spotted the period black and white photo of Jack dressed in RAF uniform. Ianto picked it up and looked at it.

"That's Jack's father. Jack Harkness senior." Estelle told him looking down at the photo wistfully as she spotted Ianto holding the photo, Jack having been sent upstairs for the box of photos. "We met at the height of the war, promised each other things we couldn't promise."

"You loved him." Ianto stated.

"I'd like to think he loved me back, at least for that while." She told him honestly.

"What happened?"

"The war ended we lost touch, he must have gone back to America. If he's still alive he'd be in his 90's now." Estelle replied.

"Jack doesn't say anything?"

"He doesn't like to speak about his father. Maybe he doesn't want to tell me he's already passed away."

"So how did you meet? Were you trying to find Jack senior?" Ianto asked.

"No, Jack found me, said that his father spoke of me and he looked me up when he moved to Cardiff. Jack is so like his father, same brilliant smile." Estelle told him.

Ianto nodded.

Jack came back moments later carrying the box Estelle asked him to fetch and they poured through the photos, Jack strongly advised Estelle to leave them be and not to go back to the forest.

Andy called Jack when there was a very suspicious person asking to be locked up because invisible flying creatures were going to kill him, whilst he was at work at Cardiff Central PD, things went worse when the man admitted to being a paedophile. Andy called Jack back with an update when the man died in a locked cell.

Within hours it was apparent to the Torchwood team that there was a case here, Jack seemed to be very anxious about the entire thing, whilst at the same time trying not to get involved in this apparent case even though the rest of the team were insistent of looking into it.

Jack brought Gwen and Owen with him to have a look at the man and found his mouth stuffed with rose petals after Gwen carefully prised a few from his throat.

"Why stuff them with rose petals?" Gwen asked as they reviewed Mark Goodson's case.

"Its fun." Jack said darkly.

"You've seen it before?" Ianto asked.

Jack had admitted it earlier. "Yes, they killed a whole troop of men I was travelling with, soldiers, one moment things were fine, laughing, joking around, we go through a tunnel, flashes of darkness and a flurry of wings and they have all suffocated on the rose petals, 15 men I was responsible for."

"But not you?" Gwen asked.

Jack shook his head. "I wasn't with them, they accidentally killed a child the day before, got drunk and drove back to the barracks and knocked over a child on the way."

"Why rose petals?" Gwen asked again. "Not something else?"

"Signature?" Ianto guessed.

"It's a warning." Jack said. "It's how they do things, it's fun for them, play games with him to torment him then kill him."

"Why?" Matt asked.

"It's the children, their chosen one, somehow the spiritual world and children go together, they are just protecting what they think is theirs."

"How do we stop them?" Tosh asked.

"We can't." Jack replied. "They are ancient, they have power over the elements, they can drown us in seconds, rip the air from our lungs, we're defenceless against them." Jack frowned he knew there was something he was forgetting.

"Sometimes I think they are part Mara." Jack commented lightly. "Suffocate people in their sleep, it's where nightmare came from."

"Delightful, we're dealing with creatures we cannot stop that may have been the sources of nightmares." Ianto commented dryly.

Jack grinned. "Come on Ianto, we've got places to be."

"Where?" Ianto stood up.

"Estelle."

As Jack and Ianto were getting into the SUV Jack got a worried phonecall from Estelle.

"Do not go outside Estelle. I beg you." Jack said over the phone.

"I won't."

"I mean it. They won't hurt Moses if he's outside, just stay inside until I get there."

Jack was driving incredibly fast, the flashing lights helping them move swiftly through the sparse traffic. Jack tried to stay on the phone with Estelle for as long as possible but had to hang up.

"There's a concentrated weather anomaly." Ianto reported as a alert came through the system. "Over Estelle's house."

Once they arrived at the house Jack literally sprinted to the house, banging on the door. "Estelle!"

The door was open and Estelle looked shocked and scared. Jack sighed in relief and pulled Ianto inside, shutting the front door and hugging Estelle close.

"That was lucky." He murmured. She was safe.

Jack could never have stopped the fairies from taking Jasmine, even knowing who they had chosen, but Jack tried to stop them from harming Estelle but couldn't protect Jasmines step father. The man had angered the fairies in trying to stop Jasmine from getting to them in the woods as well as hurting their chosen one, even as Jack tried to protect the man they sneered at the immortal man and killed him anyway.

He tried to explain as they left Jasmine's house, Jasmine skipping away with the fairies deaf to her mother's pleas. The three of them didn't say a word and sat in the SUV ignoring him.

Jack watched as Gwen, Owen and Tosh all rushed away in disgust once he had driven back to the hub.

Ianto was in the hub providing backup so knew what had happened. Andy was with the police whilst it was Matt and Jane's day off.

"What happened?" Ianto asked fruitlessly as he watched Gwen storm in and make a racket getting her things together before stalking out of the hub pushing past Jack in anger.

Tosh and Owen were a little more subtle about it, Owen quietly asked Tosh to grab a drink with him, offering the invitation to Ianto as well before slipping out. At least he never asked everyone purposely leaving Jack out.

Jack had gone into his office and sat down heavily at his desk staring at a few files neatly piled there by Ianto.

Ianto waited until everyone had left before going to Jack.

"Rough day?" Ianto said putting a mug next to Jack.

Jack merely hummed and took a sip.

"Just what I needed." He muttered as he sipped the Irish coffee that Ianto made him.

"You did the right thing." Ianto said.

"I know. Doesn't make it easier." Jack replied thinking of Steven.

"She said she wanted to go." Ianto said trying to ease his discomfort.

"What if…" Jack began. "Say it was an alien race, and a child had to be sacrificed to save everyone."

"What one death to save millions of lives?" Ianto was taken aback.

"Yes." Jack looked haunted.

Ianto thought carefully. "Well, I know that we all here would sacrifice ourselves to save others,"

"No, what if it has to be a child." Jack insisted.

"Logically its sound, saves billions of people, doesn't make it easy though. They'd be a hero." Ianto said carefully knowing it wasn't really helping.

Jack sighed. "Yeah."

"Come on, let's go." Ianto said once Jack finished his coffee and seemed to continue sinking into his depressive mood.

"Go? Where?" Jack asked looking up at Ianto.

"First dinner, then we'll go back to mine." Ianto said. "You shouldn't be alone right now."

"I'll be fine." Jack said looking back down.

"I didn't say you weren't. Come on."

Ianto pulled Jack to his feet and pulled him from the hub.

"Would you rather stay in? I can cook." Ianto offered seeing Jack withdrawing into himself slightly.

"Would you mind?" Jack asked. "You can cook?" He asked belately not realising.

"Not a brilliant chef but I do some good dishes." Ianto replied driving towards his flat.

Ianto cooked a traditional welsh stew for Jack and himself whilst Jack flicked through the tv channels and regained his control of emotions and thoughts.

"I thought for a moment you were asking me on a date." Jack smiled as they ate dinner, to his surprise Ianto blushed slightly.

"Well, that's not something you do right?" Ianto replied eyes twinkling.

"Well, maybe for the right man." Jack grinned.

"Jack Harkness dating?" Ianto said mirthlessly, gasping in fake shock.

"I have been married you know." Jack laughed.

"Really?"

"Yeah, obviously didn't work out." Jack replied.

"So you would date?" Ianto asked in a carefully controlled voice looking at his plate.

Jack smiled. "Yes. How about Friday? We can movies…dinner?" He stumbled over the words a little not wanting to rush things.

"You're asking me on a date?" Ianto checked.

"Yes, so err, interested?" Jack said.

"Yes." Ianto replied quickly with a smile. "Yes." He repeated softer.

Jack grinned letting out a breathe he didn't realise he was holding in. "Good."

**Review please!**


	12. Date Night

**Chapter 12: Date Night.**

**AN: This chapter is M rated, I'll highlight the start and end of the sex scene for those that want to skip through it. I've never written one before, so hopefully I've done it decently enough.**

**Again a huge thank you to everyone that has reviewed me. :)**

***Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.***

On Friday there was a huge rift spike in the afternoon; Jack took Matt, Jane, Ianto and Owen with him whilst Tosh relayed from the hub the information they would need.

A small spacecraft had slipped through the rift gaining heavy damage on the way, the aliens piloting the craft were injured, upset and scared, leading to a tense standoff until the universal translator got enough information to hold a half way calm conversation between them. Jack offered himself as the person to get closer with the translator to help resolve the situation, eventually the aliens were calmed down and allowed Owen and Matt who had medical training and the latter had received lessons from Owen in alien physiology, Jack knew it was best to have two trained medical officers and so Matt was his first choice since he had quite a lot of training already. Matt followed Owen's orders in how to treat the injured whilst Tosh and Jack offered to help look at the damaged parts of the ship. Ianto continued speaking with the Captain of the vessel to find out where and when they came from in order to try and help them get home.

"I'm sorry Ianto." Jack said to Ianto as Ianto finished speaking with the Captain and brought over some tools that Tosh asked for.

Ianto looked at his watch. "Not to be helped sir." He shrugged. He had been really looking forward to their date, nervous that it was with a man, yet not at all since it was Jack.

"I'll make it up to you, I promise." Jack said taking one of the tools and going over to a far circuit board.

"Are you dating?" Tosh almost squealed in an inhumane pitch.

"I'm pretty sure only dogs got that?" Ianto quipped as he blushed rubbing his ear then nodded at Tosh's inquisitive look. "Well, if we ever get around to a night off together."

"This is brilliant." Tosh said happily. "Jack really likes you, I'm so happy for you."

Ianto rolled his eyes getting a bit embarrassed about her enthusiasm but thanked her.

Several hours later Tosh had hooked up their ship to a power generator and offered to stay into the night to keep watch over the area as the aliens took the opportunity to go into the designated sleeping quarters on the ship and recover from the busy day. Tosh was in her element in repairing the alien ship and she had so many ideas brimming from the technology she saw.

Tosh also took the liberty of calling Andy in to stay with her, Owen had already agreed to stay.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Jack asked.

"We're fine, there's three of us, Matt's going to keep an eye on things at the hub, Gwen's at the hub now, but on call tonight, we've got the translator here." Tosh said smiling at Jack who was walking backwards to the SUV. "Have fun now." She grinned.

Jack got into the SUV. "So not quite the date night either one of us planned."

"Interesting to say the least." Ianto smiled starting the car and pulling away from the cordoned off area.

They drove to the hub where Jack ran in to get a change of clothes almost ignoring Gwen to be quick, they then drove to Ianto's flat where Ianto cooked a meal whilst Jack used his shower to get rid of the grime from repairing the alien ships engine room.

"AH, all better." Jack sighed loudly in happiness as he was finally clean.

Ianto turned and looked at Jack who was dressed in jeans and a white t shirt. "Never seen you in jeans before."

"Yeah, this is what I always used to wear, then joined Torchwood and got stuck in my typical fashion."

"1940's Sir?"

"It's a brilliant time Ianto, don't knock it." Jack smiled coming closer to take a look at the lasagne that Ianto whipped up. "Delicious." He whispered looking at Ianto.

Ianto blushed and ducked away from Jack.

"I'm sorry that this is a lousy date." Jack said halfway through the meal.

Ianto shrugged. "This is my date then."

Jack grinned at his assumption. "Good to know we're on the same page."

Ianto blushed as he realised he let slip that this was a long term thing for them both.

"Besides here I can quite happily hold your hand." Jack said reaching out and brushing his fingertips on Iantos knuckles like he had done several times already.

"And you can't in a restaurant?"

"Well, you've never dated a guy before," Jack shrugged. "Some people get worried about it in public."

"I'm not a PDA kind of person, never have been." Ianto admitted. "It drove Lisa crazy sometimes, sorry I shouldn't talk about her."

Jack shook his head. "She was important to you, I know that."

"You never talk about your family." Ianto asked softly as they sat on the sofa with a movie on, they had ended up talking throughout most of the film so far, their hands were gently clasped together gently stroking the others palm or thumb.

"Neither do you." Jack responded.

Ianto nodded. "You already know all there is to know from my file."

Jack nodded. "That's only facts, but I do know about your sister I guess. How is she?"

"Fine, Johnny is driving her nuts so are the kids, but she probably would never change that." He grinned.

"I've got a brother." Jack said softly.

"Yeah?"

"We lived….my father, my brother and I were on the beach when the town was attacked, my father told me to take care of my brother Gray and run home, I lost him, let go of his hand just for a second and he had disappeared I ran home and my father who had been looking for my mother was dead on our doorstep. My Mom was mad that I lost Gray, I've never stopped looking for him."

"Oh Jack."

"I left home the second I could, searched for Gray until I met the Doctor and things went a little messed up."

"Who attacked you?" Ianto asked.

"It was this alien race that likes to torture, its what Gray went through, is going through. He was 9 years old."

"I'm so sorry." Ianto said quietly, grasping Jack's hand tighter.

"It was a long time ago."

"You know from my file that my parents are dead." Ianto said a few minutes later, feeling like Jack had revealed quite a lot.

Jack squeezed his hand. "Yeah."

"Guess I have a few regrets about that, my father was dying in a hospice, I never called or visited, didn't know what to say to him." Ianto confided. "My mum was in Providence Park, she had problems for years, she just faded away I didn't want to see my father do the same."

"There's nothing wrong with that Ianto." Jack told him assuredly.

"Yeah but he was waiting for me to call." Ianto said.

There was nothing Jack could really say to make him feel any better so Jack leaned in closer and rested his head against Iantos shoulder offering his support.

"If he were alive today I'd have no idea how he'd respond to you and I." Ianto admitted.

"He'd love me, everyone does." Jack said confidently.

Ianto chuckled. "Shall I give you and your ego some alone time?"

Jack laughed. "We can share."

"I didn't mean to turn the mood." Jack apologised.

"And miss out knowing more about you than the others, don't be sorry."

"If I didn't know you better I'd think you'd use this against the others." Jack smiled.

"Well, I might a little." Ianto smirked.

Jack smiled happily as Ianto leaned closer to Jack, resting his head against Jacks and edging closer. Jack wasn't ever going to make Ianto second guess their relationship this time around, he was going to do right by his Welshman.

Ianto let go of Jacks hand and wrapped that arm around Jacks shoulders, drawing him closer, Jacks head now rested in the crook of Iantos neck and Jacks eyes were shut in bliss of being back in his lovers arms, Ianto was gently stroking Jacks arm as he processed all the feelings Jack was evoking being so close.

Jack looked up and moved his head back so he could look at Ianto, they looked into each others eyes and Jack leaned forward to kiss him.

The kiss was tender and sweet, everything a first kiss ought to be, both Jack and Ianto almost melted at the sensation. The kiss lingered as they explored each others mouths languidly, each taking their time.

Jack reached one hand forward and cupped Iantos cheek, his thumb tracing his strong jawline. Ianto had at some point grasped one of Jacks braces to tug him closer.

Jack leant back slightly to catch his breath and leant his forehead on Ianto's. "Wow."

Ianto smiled. "Yeah, that was incredible."

"There's definitely more where that came from." Jack smirked as he tugged Ianto's head to his and caught him in a more passionate kiss, this kiss was far different from the previous one and they fought slightly for dominance before Ianto relented, for now.

**Start of M scene.**

Ianto moved one of his hands to Jack's collar trying to get him closer, he then moved that hand through Jacks hair coming to a rest at the short hairs on the back of Jacks neck, stroking them softly causing ripples of sensations shoot down Jacks back at the touch.

The hand that Jack had on Ianto's cheek moved to the back of his head pulling him closer, Jack ended up pushing Ianto gently back so he lay on his back on the sofa, Jack moved so that he was hovered over the younger man, one hand braced just above Iantos head keeping his weight off him his other hand carding through Iantos hair or touching his face.

Ianto went with the change in position happily, keeping his hand on the back of Jacks neck, using the new position to pull Jack closer, his other hand came up and wrapped around Jacks back forcibly pulling the older man to him so that their bodies were pulled flush against each other.

The kiss turned needy and desperate as they explored the new situation, Ianto explored Jacks body above his clothes, the sensation of his cloth covered hardness pressed against his thigh was a bit of a shock at first but Ianto surprised himself by how much he liked the feeling.

Jack broke the kiss, looking down at Ianto flushed face and thoroughly kissed lips, he smiled at him. "You ok?"

"Yeah." Ianto whispered leaning up and pulling Jack down again into another heated kiss.

Ianto trailed his hands down Jacks back, before sliding them under his t shirt and tracing his chest under his t shirt smiling in the kiss at the gasp Jack made and his resultant thrust down. Ianto hands circled his nipples, lightly scratched his flat muscled abs and traced the strong muscles over Jacks back.

"You're driving me nuts here." Jack mumbled breaking the kiss moving to press hot wet kisses on Iantos neck causing him to gasp and moan into Jacks neck.

Ianto surprised himself at his eagerness to get his hands into Jack's trousers but this man was incredible, he only wanted to get closer. Ianto drew his hand down, touching Jacks hardness through his jeans, Jack moaned and pressed himself closer, running one hand down Iantos side before running it up under his shirt. Ianto hadn't changed since work so he had a button down shirt on which Jack tugged the buttons undone from the bottom his hand tracing the exposed flesh as the shirt fell apart.

Ianto popped the button of Jack's jeans undone and slid his hand in to grasp Jack, Jack moaned deeply into Ianto's neck and bit down lightly on his shoulder.

Ianto squeezed him experimentally stroking him softly in the tight confines of his jeans.

"Yan. Yan." Jack panted as he rested his head against Ianto's and tried to catch a breath his hand tracing patterns on Iantos hip. "We really need to stop, or I don't think I'll be able to." He said desperately.

Ianto smiled at Jack. "Shall we go into the bedroom then sir?" Ianto lightly pulled on Jacks member and kissed Jack on the lips.

Jack closed his eyes and groaned. "I don't want to push you."

"Does it look like you're doing any of the pushing?" Ianto smirked as he continued stroking Jacks member.

"No, not really." Jack admitted with a sigh.

"So," Ianto said pulling Jack down for another searing kiss. "Stay here or bedroom?"

Jack groaned when Ianto slid the pad of his thumb over the tip of Jacks cock as he continued his strokes whilst they talked.

"Bedroom," Jack panted.

Ianto nodded and withdrew his hand gently.

Jack pulled Iantos hand away from between their bodies and pressed his body flush against Iantos kissing him desperately, Ianto gripped his shoulder as Jack shallowly thrust against Ianto.

"Come on bedroom." Jack said when he pulled away, he reached and pulled Ianto to him kissing him soundly again before he led the way to the bedroom.

Once inside the bedroom Ianto spun Jack around and pushed him against the bedroom door that had just been slammed shut. Ianto pressed himself against Jack as he kissed him, Jack pulled Ianto closer, one hand on his neck the other grabbing his arse.

Jack pushed off the wall and still kissing Ianto led them to the bed, Ianto walking backwards until his calves hit the bed. Ianto instead of sitting down spun them around again and pushed Jack down on the bed.

"I have to say I do like this dominant side of you in the bedroom." Jack panted as he slid backwards on the bed.

Ianto grinned as he followed Jack on his hands and knees, once Jack was lying on his back in the centre of the bed Ianto had straddled him, hovering over him, not quite touching and just looking at Jack.

"See something you like?" Jack couldn't help ask.

"Oh, yes." Ianto whispered as he caught Jacks lips in another searing kiss. Jack moved his hands and gently pushed back the undone shirt from Ianto. Ianto lifted his hands from the bed to let the shirt fall to the ground, Jack gently caressed Ianto's chest and back sending shivers through his body.

Jack rolled them over so that he was on top again before sitting up straddling Ianto, his groin pressed to Iantos, Jack pulled his t shirt off his head before moving back to press their naked chests together elicting a moan from Ianto at the new sensation. Jack rolled them a bit so they were both on their sides, their legs tangled and pressed close together as they both touched and stroked and kissed. Jack undone Iantos trouser buttons, carefully touching him through the material already feeling how turned on and hard he was, Jack groaned at the thought of what was to come.

Jack pushed Ianto onto his back and kissed down his chest, paying attention to his nipples and kissing a circle around his sensitive belly button before gently tracing the edges of his trousers, looking up through his lashes at Ianto's face as he was teased.

Jack smiled as Ianto grasped the sheets in his hand, Jack reached on hand forward and threaded his fingers through his before he kissed Ianto's member through his trousers. Ianto hitched a breath and he involuntary thrust upwards. Jack let go of Iantos hand and used both hands to gently pull Ianto's trousers off his body, Ianto helped and sat up once they were off, he leant forward as Jack came back to kneel one leg either side of Ianto's, Jack tilted Ianto's neck back and kissed him. Ianto tugged at Jacks jeans and Jack quickly took them off.

Ianto pulled Jack down on top of him, they lay flush to each other dressed only in their boxer shorts, arms around each other kissing passionately.

Jack was stroking one nipple, tugging and pinching it as Ianto wrapped one leg around Jack to hold him close as they minutely thrust against each other trying to find some friction, they were both breathing heavily and very hard. Ianto trailed one hand down Jack's back slipping his hand under Jack's boxers.

Jack moaned his mouth moving to latch onto Ianto's collar bone, he pressed his mouth lower and lower and kissed and sucked Ianto's chest slowly before he reached Ianto's boxers, he looked up for approval, his fingers lightly grasping the edges of his boxers. Ianto nodded waving his hand in frustration as Jack grinned and slowly drew them down.

"Hmmm." Jack hummed as he kissed Iantos hip, his chest pressed against Ianto's leg so the vibrations sent a shiver across Ianto. He kissed a trail to both hips alternating kissing down his legs, tracing his tongue on his thighs, never quite going where Ianto was wanting him to go.

"You're enjoying this." Ianto accused him with a groan.

"Oh yes, and you will too." Jack replied with a grin.

Jack leant up and kissed Ianto deeply before going back down, and tracing his tongue on the underside of Iantos member, Ianto groaned and tried to stop himself from thrusting.

Jack pressed a hand on Iantos hips to hold him in place and with well practised ease Jack swallowed Ianto whole, deep throating him in one go pressing against Iantos jerk and gasp.

"Shit!" Ianto muttered one arm thrown over his face.

Jack smiled around Ianto's impressively large cock and hollowed his cheeks drawing another gasp and pant from Ianto, Jack slowly drew out until only the head remained he lightly traced his tongue over the slit, tasting the pre come and saltiness, he bobbed his head a few times before taking him in deep again. Jack moved his arm so that one arm held down both his hips, his only hand grasping Iantos for several seconds, squeezing his fingers before stroking Ianto's hip and thigh teasingly as he continued his ministrations of Ianto's member. Jack drew Ianto's right leg up to a bent position moving his hand to his arse, squeezing it appreciatively before gently parting his cheeks and tracing his hole lightly.

Ianto jerked slightly at the sensation, not having it before. "Sorry." He muttered.

Jack shook his head lightly, withdrawing his hand, instead using it to lightly cup Iantos' balls, gently rolling them between his fingers.

Ianto was breathing heavily, panting and writhing under Jacks mouth, one of his hands had reached and gently stroked the small strands on the back of Jacks neck, sometimes grasping the hair as Jacks elicted an intense spark in him. Moments later Ianto was murmuring that he was close, moving his hand so Jack could move if he wanted. Jack merely sucked harder and faster pressing Ianto's balls gently and he felt them tighten and he swallowed Ianto's cum greedily. When Ianto was clean Jack swallowed the last bit and sucked his finger that caught the bit that fell down his chin, Ianto was staring at Jack licking his finger clean.

Jack kissed Iantos chest as he moved forward so they laid down chest to chest again. He kissed Ianto chastely.

"That was good." Ianto murmured several moments later as Jack carded his hands through Ianto's hair.

He abruptly stopped his hands. "Good? That was brilliant." Jack defended.

Ianto grinned at him and Jack pouted as he realised that he was being teased.

Jack pinned Ianto underneath him and kissed him hotly, feeling Ianto get hard again.

As Jack drew back, his hands still caressing Ianto's body he noticed Ianto looked a little nervous.

"You OK?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, just…" Ianto muttered.

"Not done this before," Jack smiled, he took one of Ianto's hands. "And you were such a pro earlier, you don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with, just start with what you like."

Ianto smiled at Jack and kissed him hard, rolling them so Jack was underneath Ianto, Jack grinned at Ianto as Ianto broke from the kiss, Jack's grin was broken when Ianto tugged on his earlobe with his teeth, running his tongue over his ear, Jack moaned and his hands tightly gripped Iantos hips as he gasped at the sensation.

Ianto planted open mouth kisses along Jack's neck and collar bone, lightly sucking before giving Jack a quick hickey on his shoulder.

"You gave me a love bite." Jack gasped in shock as he took in Iantos smug grin.

"Well, marking you as mine." Ianto growled.

"I love it when you're possessive." Jack groaned his eyes darkening in desire.

Ianto grinned and continued his caress of Jack's body, taking his time and teasing the older man, he slowly took off his boxers, and drew out the teasing like Jack had done with him until the man almost begged Ianto to do something. Ianto took pity on him and lightly grasped his cock, he had never really touched another man like this before so was slightly nervous and not sure what to do but it was like a first time with a girl, just learn as you go. He stroked Jack a few times getting a feel for the length and girth of his almost scarily big cock, Ianto looked over at Jacks face his eyes were screwed shut his face showing his pleasure, Ianto felt smugly proud that he was pleasing him, Ianto leaned forward and took an experimental lick up Jack's member.

Jack groaned in appreciation, whispering Ianto's name. Ianto closes his lips around the head and sucked lightly and Jack bucked his hips gasping in pleasure. Ianto spurred on took more of Jack into his mouth tongue tracing patterns as he went, he tried to recall what Jack did that he liked, he took as much of Jack into his mouth as he could grasping the base with his hand and he hollowed his cheeks, Jack gasped and almost shouted Ianto's name one hand falling into Ianto's hair. Ianto pulled out and took him back in slowly, he repeated the action a few times hearing Jacks breath hitch ever so often, he withdrew completely and ran his tongue from base to tip before running his tongue over the slit and tasting his pre come, he spread the precome over his cock as he lightly sucked the tip back into his mouth and feeling Jacks hand tighten in his hair. Jack whispered his encouragments and minutes later Jack came with a shout, Ianto swallowed most of it.

"Fuck." Jack said as he sat up and pulled Ianto towards him. "Are you sure that was the first time you've done that?" He joked breathing to steady his erratically beating heart.

Ianto looked down bashfully but felt pleased that he wasn't crap at it.

Jack drew Ianto into a kiss, he pushed them into a reclined position, and kissed Ianto leisurely reconnecting.

Jack leaned up on his elbow, his other hand resting over Ianto's heart as they lay their legs entwined and close together. Ianto was starting to look slightly nervous, Jack tried very hard to suppress a smile at his nervousness.

"We won't do anything you don't want to do." Jack whispered as he laid side by side next to ianto so they were face to face.

"I erm…We can…" Ianto stuttered.

Jack smiled and traced Ianto's face with his hand.

**End of M scene**

"This is good." Jack said snuggling closer.

Ianto smiled back. "Yeah, this is good."

**Reviews make me post the next chapter sooner!**


	13. A test of Faith

**Disclaimer: I owe none of the recognisable characters or storyline, I do own Jane, Matt, Paul and Carly though. This chapter and the next has influences from an X-Files episode and I credit the writers for that storyline, I have however tweaked it for my own uses.**

**AN: Big thank you to Kem-liu, Lynka Read, My-Rebel-Within, twilightluva786 for their reviews on my last chapter, so I dedicate this chapter to everyone who has reviewed and kept me going, hope you enjoy it.**

**Like I said before, this is inspired by an X-Files episode I saw, but tweaked to fit the Whoniverse only the bare skeleton of the story could be recognised.**

**# #**

**Chapter 13.**

***** Death is always around the corner, but often our society gives it inordinate help.  
>-Carter Burwell *<p>

# #

Jack and Ianto continued to spend time together in the evenings, having dates or just evenings in alone, they hadn't told any of the team about their relationship yet since Ianto was a very private person and Jack was extremely happy to just have Ianto with him again.

The incident with Mary went pretty much the same as it had before, Jack was wary about changing things since she was extremely dangerous and difficult to track down. Jack spoke with Tosh at length afterwards and made sure that she was alright, he invited her around to spend an evening with him and Ianto to make sure that she would be fine.

Tosh started spending more time with Ianto and they became close friends quickly and Jack was very happy with that.

# #

When Eugene Jones died and Gwen took it as her personal mission to solve the case Jack stood back and let her go about it as she needed, it was good experience for her in investigating a case solo and doing all kinds of jobs involved in that. She barely asked for anything from the rest of the team, knowing what she needed to solve the case.

Ianto and Tosh took the time during the Eugene Jones case to complete their separate projects as well as spend time with friends and Ianto was getting more and more confident in his relationship with Jack.

When the plane from the 1950's slipped through the rift near Christmas Jack attempted to handle it much better. He ended up spending time with John in an attempt to help him adjust better, instead the events pretty much circulated the same way as he remembered, John stole Ianto's car and attempted suicide in it, Jack found him and sat with him making sure that he at least wasn't alone in the end.

Jack also found out that Owen and Diane had a relationship much to Jack's attempt to run interference and that Gwen had taken in Emma.

Owen was self destructive after Diane left him and took her plane out to attempt to go through the rift again and Jack didn't know what to do apparently some things had to happen the same way.

Jack wearily went back to the hub after John's death, he had told Ianto to go home once he found his car and John and now John was dead and Jack failed him again.

"Jack?"

Jack turned and saw Ianto was still in the hub.

"I said you could go home Ianto." Jack said wearily as he took off his coat and tugged at his shirt collar.

"I know." Ianto said taking Jack's coat off him and hanging it up. "What happened?"

"John's dead. Killed himself." Jack muttered in a dead voice sitting down heavily at the couch in the hub.

"Oh." Ianto muttered as he sat down next to him.

Jack put his head in his hands, carbon monoxide poison gave him a massive headache and nausea, even after coming back to life.

"Are you OK? You look sick." Ianto asked.

"Fine." Jack muttered.

"Yeah right." Ianto muttered. "Come on." Ianto pulled at Jack's arm trying to get him to stand up, Jack followed Ianto meekly as Ianto took him down into his room under his office. Ianto undressed Jack and got in the shower with him, washing him gently as Jack was semi unresponsive.

Once clean Ianto put Jack to bed and curled up next to him, holding him tightly as Jack fell asleep uneasily. Jack clung tightly to Ianto as he fell asleep.

# #

Mid-January.

Andy had been putting together cases from the police that he thought might be something for them to investigate, he brought it up to Jack first who agreed to call a staff meeting and go over the cases.

Andy stood at the top of the table and brought out a box of files.

"Each of these files is missing persons; they have a link, although it's a weird one so the police are reluctant to say they are connected. As far as I can tell its spread across the UK I sent out a request to other constabulary's and have been sent these files." Andy clicked the remote and the wall screen lit up with this police email address.

"Holy shit!" Gwen exclaimed.

"In three hours I had twelve files sent to me, in three days I've got several dozen and more keeps trickling in. I've not even got to the oversea's cases that were forwarded to me."

"What is the case?" Ianto asked opening the box of files and withdrawing the top one.

"Abductions under mysterious circumstances."

"Alien abductions?" Owen scoffed. "That's a little vague."

"They are specific conditions in each case that I had. These people are missing, they were abducted or disappeared and none have returned. And well they are all kids."

"What's the link?"

"Children aged between 3 and 15 have all disappeared, some from locked rooms, others simply being there one moment gone the next. But each time the parent, in one case a foster parent, or the nearest or closest person to that child sees a horrifying premonition of the childs death. They blink and its gone." Andy explained.

"That doesn't mean anything." Owen said.

"But in each case the child disappears within 24 hours, no leads, no clues, no body."

"What do you think it is Jack?" Gwen asked.

"Don't know, not dealt with something like this before, it could be a coincidence, or some form of psychic link to the child, I've seen that before, but then the child disappearing?"

"The latest case is of 5 year old Marie Rose Richardson." Andy clicked the remote and brought up her file, it showed a photo of the young girl hugging a doll.

"She went missing whilst her mother was driving to Swansea four days ago. Her mothers car was carjacked and she was thrown out, she begged to get her daughter and the car-nappers opened the backseat to chuck her out too but she was gone, her backpack still there but her booster seat empty."

"She didn't notice her kid disappear."

"I spoke to the mother myself, they stopped in services ten miles previously and they had a drink, used the bathroom then got into the car together. When she went onto the quieter roads she swore Maria was still there singing those kids songs."

"So somewhere between the services and the car being stopped she disappeared."

"That's not all, the police have connected Maria with the paedophile they arrested yesterday."

"Does he have something to do with it?"

"A full psychoanalysis is being done on him right now but, he has tapes of Maria playing so he was at the very least planning on doing something. The police are still trying to find his primary hideout we've got a few tapes he must have brought home with him but nothing concrete to condemn him yet. He also denies taking Maria."

"I thought you reckoned there was something going on." Ianto said, if this paedophile was the reason behind the abduction it wasn't their jurisdiction.

"I do, look, none of the other cases are connected to him, so I'm joining the guys on a few leads we have on the hideouts to see if he was responsible for Maria's disappearance or if she really is one of these cases. I don't think that he's the suspect in all these cases. I'll let you know if I find something."

"Andy, if this guy has taken this girl, it's not our responsibility." Jack said faintly wearily.

"Not our responsibility!" Gwen cried. "This man's a paedophile!"

"And as much as he deserves to die painfully and slowly for that, it is not our job to do."

"Sounds almost like you wouldn't mind offing him yourself" Owen told jack.

"Wouldn't blink an eye." Jack replied grimly. "And probably take immense pleasure in killing him."

"You sound like all those dads who's kids have been taken by paedos." Andy commented.

"Find the connection between the missing kids, Marie and this guy." Jack ordered. "And let's find out if the rift is to blame, Tosh check for any sort of readings coming from that strip of road in-between the service stop and where she was carjacked, even if its a blip I want it examined."

"Got it." Tosh got up and left.

"Andy join the guys and search those places, do you want Gwen?"

"I was keeping Torchwood out of this for now, some of the guys are still funny."

"Not a problem, we'll be on standby for your call." Jack promised. "Everyone else, we need to go through all these files, Gwen you start with Andy's emailed files while we'll start on the hard copies. Ianto, anything in the archives that rings a bell?"

"If it's an alien species involved I haven't come across it. There's only one mention of an alien species being interested solely on children, but there's no case file only a vague reference from 1965."

"That's different." Jack assured him, hoping to whatever deity existed that it was true.

"You know what case I was talking about?" Ianto looked surprised.

"Yes, it's nothing like this." Jack replied firmly.

Ianto nodded and took more files from the box and handed them out whilst Gwen went to her workstation, Jane took pity on her and went to her desk and told Gwen to forward some to her.

# #

Andy went to the Police Station and sat in the conference about how the searches were going down. There were seven possible places in which they believed that the primary hideout was, seven teams were being carried on at the same time. Each target was an isolated house with land or natural barriers preventing a decent cursory look around the place. Three of the locations were directly connected to the suspect, but it looked too obvious. The other targets were indirectly connected to him and were more likely to be the right place. This man had evaded justice for years, he was clever, but they had him now.

Andy's was leading a team up to a farmhouse that had belonged to the suspects Uncle, the uncle lived out of the country these days but the farmhouse was considered to be too derelict to be rented out and it was never put on the market.

There were seven others in Andy's team and they went there in two unmarked cars and a Police Van. The two cars went first and covered both sides of the farmhouse whilst the Police van went straight to the farmhouse. All eight police officers raided the farmhouse entering the property through the front and back doors.

"Clear,"

"Clear."

Once the all clear was given Andy directed the officers to search through the junk that was scattered around to find something to do with the suspect.

"Andy. Have a look at this." Andy was called over to the study room.

"What we got?" Andy asked as he stepped through.

"I think there's something here." One of his officers, Carly said.

"What?"

"Well, I saw the blueprints of the place and this doesn't add up." Carly pointed to the wall.

Andy stepped forward and took a look, before turning around and looking behind him. He frowned and traced the room in his mind.

"You're right." Andy stepped over to the window and opened it before sticking his head the entire way out and looking at the external wall. "The outside wall extends further."

"I was thinking that." Carly said. "The room is two foot shorter than it should be."

"So what is he hiding here" Andy mused looking at the wall.

"We could break the wall down, it's probably just plywood, or plaster." Carly said knocking lightly on the wall and hearing it echo.

"No, if he done this, there must be a way inside, we are going to need to preserve the evidence." Andy said decisively.

"OK." She smiled, glad that he didn't want to just break through it.

"Right, get everything pulled from this side of the room, uncover the carpets if you need to." Andy said stepping outside. He quickly organised people to take a closer look in the fields outside and the edges of the woods on the property.

"Anything?" Andy asked as he stepped back inside the study.

Carly popped her head up. "Not yet, but look."

Andy went over and took a closer look at the wall.

"There's lines in the wallpaper," Andy traced them with his finger.

"The wallpaper is new too, do you think he was trying to cover his tracks?"

"Possibly, but look." Andy showed her another part of the wallpaper. "These are older, it looks like this particular strip was replaced recently."

"Interesting." Carly said taking a closer look and seeing the faint edges of dust and wear that occurred when wallpaper or paint was covered by furniture hiding some parts from damage.

"I think we should rip this down." Andy said.

"Agreed." Carly was the forensic scientist (SOCO-scene of crime officer) attached to Andy's team, she was also a very experienced forensic officer and she volunteered for this mission, she was the one more likely to notice discrepancies in the house and she had done her job beautifully so far.

Carly retrieved her forensic kit from the Police van putting on a sterile bodysuit over her clothes, handing Andy a set of latex gloves and face mask as well as booties to cover his shoes.

"We need to try and pull this down carefully, we need to try and get this intact." Carly instructed Andy.

"Got it." Andy was tall enough to gently grasp the edges of the strip of wallpaper they needed to pull down. He gently pulled it down.

"What if it rips?" Andy asked carefully as the wallpaper started to tag.

"It won't be the end of the world Andy, no worries, but it would be for the better if it came down whole,"

Andy and Carly carefully pulled off the wallpaper, it didn't come off in one go so Carly made sure that the pieces were rearranged in their original orientation to ensure that forensic work could be carried out efficiently.

Once the wallpaper was off they could get a proper look at the fake wall underneath.

"What now?" Andy asked as they looked at a wooden wall.

Carly didn't reply instead she probed the wood lightly pressing on it and was surprised to find that it was on some sort of a hinge.

The wooden door swung sideways, a small hinge at the top allowed it to move with enough pressure.

Carly swung the door open and held it.

"Pretty sophisticated." Andy whistled. "It had to have been built by the suspect himself, since it was too flimsy for any builder to agree to it without remembering it well.

Carly moved something in the way to hold the 'door' open.

Andy took a step inside and turned on a torch shining it on the hidden room.

Carly followed him in turning on her own torch.

"Sick bastard!" Carly cried as she looked around.

"True." Andy said calmly, almost too calmly as his hands shook lightly.

Inside the small 2x8 foot room there were shelves stacked to the brim of home videos, one shelf was piled high with papers and photographs.

There was a small table on one side with a chair in front, on the table there was a television attached to a vcr.

"Is this his room?" Carly asked Andy.

"We need empirical proof, you know that." He replied.

Carly rolled her eyes and nodded taking a look around, she went for the most obvious places first. She dusted for prints on the VCR and television and found several decent prints which she carefully put in an evidence bag to be processed later.

"How long will it take to process those?" Andy asked pointing at the prints.

"If you want a preliminary I can run the prints on the database." Carly answered. "The best bet is to run these downtown with an officer."

"Do that." Andy nodded and called over the radio for an officer to take custody of the prints and drive them to the forensics lab.

Once the prints were gone to be compared to the suspect they had in custody. Carly did a thorough sweep of the hidden room, she pretty much packed the entire room.

They uncovered photos dating back decades, and videos were grouped in sections, detailing each child separately.

Andy had an officer bring out the folder of photos of victims they believed to have been linked to the suspect and compared them to the videos and photos he had, the names on the tapes matched several of the victims in recent years, whilst a large portion of the photos also matched the names.

"Andy!" An officer, Paul Williams ran through to them. He paused and his face turned almost white as he comprehended the room that Andy and Carly were in.

"What is it Paul?" Andy asked.

"You both need to come with me, we found something." Paul said..

Carly finished sealing the evidence bag she had and placed it in the box she was filling up. She nodded and stood up and followed Andy and Paul out of the room.

"You said to look through the fields thoroughly, and we were doing a standard box search, combing the fields for evidence systematically. One of the officers found something."

Paul led Andy and Carly halfway down the field where three officers were standing in a circle looking down on something.

"Make room." Paul said softly as they approached.

The three officers backed away slowly.

Andy took a look on the ground, it was early morning, always the best time for a raid and the ground was seeped in a low level fog that gave the entire field an eerie look, as he looked on the grassy field he noticed several things that were abnormal. The ground was uneven, more so than a normal field would be, the second was that the area they were surrounding seemed to have sunken.

Carly dropped to a crouch by the area. "It looks like the ground has fallen, its not uncommon, especially if there is an old underground river or stream or if the water table has shifted." She stated.

"It's not that." Paul said.

"What then." Andy asked looking at him.

"It's this." Carly interrupted having found the point of interest. She photographed and the picked up a small object, turning it over in her hand.

"What is that?"

"It looked like bone, my wife watches CSI all the time, its porous, I'm pretty sure that means its bone, right." A slightly upset officer said.

"He's right, porous generally means it could be bone, there are porous rocks of course, but not here, and this is definitely bone. If I hazard a guess, it could be a finger or a toe bone, but that would depend on the size and age of the victim." Carly rattled on.

"Educated guess?" Andy asked.

Carly looked up at him. "Definitely a child, at the very latest a petite teenager." She said solemnly.

Andy nodded. This was the site, they had the photos, the videos and now a bone in a field, he cast a look over the field back to the farmhouse. The sheer distance from the house was strange.

"What are you thinking?" Carly asked as she sealed the bone in an evidence bag.

"Isn't it strange?" Andy asked.

"That he buried a body here? That man is sick!" One officer spat out angrily.

"No, not that." Andy said eerily calm in the face of this monster, he supposed that Torchwood had done that to him, disconnect from the moment to keep going, fall apart later.

"Why here?" Andy asked turning around and facing the officers. "Think about it, we're in the off centre of the middle of this field. If he relished in the fact that a victim was buried here, it'll be closer to the house."

Carly nodded following him.

"If he was ashamed in any way after the fact, he would bury the victim over by the tree line, far away from the line of sight." He continued.

"Looking out of the farmhouse you couldn't directly see this place, unless you were in the attic or the first floor spare room." Carly said looking at the house and the two windows she could see.

"Exactly, if that was indicative of feeling remorse…"

"We would expect the victim to be much farther away, even into the woods." Carly continued.

"So why here?"

Andy looked around the field once more and back at the farmhouse.

"What if this isn't the only one?" Andy asked in a shadow of a voice.

"What?" Carly asked even though each officer heard the words clearly as if he had yelled them.

"None of the bodies were ever found." Andy continued. "We need to uncover this site, if it's a grave. Paul get the crime scene tape and mark out this area."

Paul nodded and ran off to the cars down the route they already cleared the floor of evidence.

"I'm going to call for more help. I think we definitely have site 1." Andy said.

"Are you going to call Torchwood?" Carly asked as Andy took a few steps away to call the police station.

"What makes you think that?" Andy said nonchalantly.

Carly smiled. "I know that you're their 'liaison officer' or whatever, and I know that you disappeared for an hour or so before the meeting started, we had to wait for you."

"Doesn't mean anything." Andy replied.

"Is this a Torchwood thing?" Carly asked almost wanting it to be.

"I don't think so." Andy replied. "They offered to help." He added.

Carly nodded and went back to the scene and left Andy to his call.

# #

Twelve officers arrived within the hour bringing along more SOCO's with them, they also brought the news that the prints all matched the suspect. Andy requested some ground penetrating radar to be brought to search the area to see if there were any more graves and the request was granted. The radar and a specialist would be with them as soon as possible.

The first site was carefully marked off and Andy watched as Carly very carefully dug into the ground, each trowel of soil was placed in a sieve in case of more small bones and evidence. She carefully undug the grave and they soon found a shallow grave that a tiny body was laid out in.

Once the body was uncovered mostly Carly made sure she took plenty of photographs of the scene and stood back.

She picked up a voice recorder that she had been using earlier in the house to document what she found.

"A grave was discovered in the field, approximately 200 yards from the main house, a small bone, possibly a finger or toe led to the discovery of the grave. The ground under the grave has receeded, either from poor burial, or shift of the ground underneath. The victim looks to have been buried for some time, there is almost no soft tissue or organs left and any residual has long since dried away or seeped into the ground around the skeleton. The victim, is young, likely between 7 and 10, sex in unknown." Carly pressed stop on the record and took a breath.

"You don't know the sex?" Andy had to ask.

"Hard to tell in young children when its just skeleton, we might be able to use some of the bone marrow, if there's any left to determine a sex, or use facial reconstruction and compare it to the list of possible victims we have."

Andy nodded.

Carly put the tape recorder back on. "Victim is stretched out, arms placed across their body, legs outstretched, indicating that the victim was dead when buried. There appears to be some strands of cloth attached to the femur, sample taken for analysis and sealed separately. There are also several strands of hair, blonde in appearance still attached to the skull, two strands taken for analysis and sealed separately, judging from the length of the hair it is likely that this is a female. From preliminary looks, there is no obvious cause of death, a camp will be set up in site to deal with the possible multiple victims before taken to county morgue for autopsy. Recommend bone marrow biopsy and facial reconstruction." Carly turned the tape recorder off and placed it on the ground next to her kit.

"We need to move the victim now." She stated. Carly arranged a plastic sheet on the ground next to the grave, she carefully kneeled next to the skeleton and showed Andy where to hold. They carefully picked up the skeleton and placed it on the plastic sheet. Carly picked up the few bones that fell apart from the main skeleton.

"I was afraid we would have to move them piece by piece." She said quietly.

"Are you alright?" Andy asked as she reverently wrapped the skeleton in the plastic sheet before sealing the entire thing with evidence tape and marking it.

"Yeah, fine. Just have a weird feeling about this place." She said looking around.

"I know what you mean, there's more here." He said.

Once the ground penetrating radar arrived it went across the field and a flag was placed at each site where there was reason to dig. The officers used that time to properly finish clearing the house of material and set up the make shift camp, once several vans were filled with documents seized from the property and sent for analysis Andy took that moment to look back out at the field.

"Oh shit!" He whispered.

"And here I thought you weren't going to react." Carly smiled as she came up next to him. She looked out on the field as well as the specialist and the officer planting the flags were almost done with their circuit.

"Holy shit!" Carly whispered.

There were about 30 flags merrily waving in the small breeze conflicting with the melancholy reason for the flags.

"How many?" Carly whispered.

"Let's not overreact here." Andy said quickly. "Carly I need you to pair a SOCO with an officer and get them to go to each flag. Tell them what they need to do, I'll arrange more people here, we work across the field ok."

"OK." She said shocked before shaking her head and going to retrieve her kit.

# #

Andy called in hours later saying they found the place. Jack, Ianto, and Owen went there and saw a gloomy field set next to an old house.

"Thank god you're here." Andy came up to them looking ten years older.

"What's happened?" Jack asked.

"We found the site." Andy said leading them around the house to see the field properly.

What they saw shook them, dozens of police officers and dozens of scene of crime officers were working together digging large numbers of holes. As they drew nearer, Jack realised that they were uncovering bodies. Owen set his case on the floor. "I'm going to help them Jack." He said putting some latex gloved on and striding forward.

Owen immediately announced himself to Carly, the SOCO in charge offering his help as a Doctor and as a mortician.

"It looks like he's had dozens of victims over the years." Andy said wearily. "They are all buried here. So far 12 bodies have been recovered, tapes show kids aged between 3 and 12, boys and girls, seems he had no preference. We're recovering the bodies and investigating whether Maria is here."

Jack and Ianto joined in to help Owen, the entire graveyard for that was what it was, was eerily silent, not a single person spoke louder than a hushed whisper and only when necessary. Many of the men and women working on uncovering the bodies were in tears.

Even though this wasn't a Torchwood case, they couldn't walk away from such a site.

Ianto and Jack uncovered a small skeleton that must have been years buried in the ground. Most of the children were wrapped in a plastic bag to be buried, which helped the investigators in preserving evidence in the most recent victims. Jack picked up a small ribbon that had fallen out of the torn bag the child they uncovered had.

"This one must be a girl." Jack whispered mostly to himself the faded yellow and pink ribbon inbetween his gloved fingers.

Ianto nodded and brought an evidence bag closer before Jack and Ianto reverently moved the skeleton into the new bag. Jack carried the girl up to the line they made at the top of the field. He marked her number and site of burial before joining Ianto at the next place.

Owen soon started on examination of the skeletons and bodies, he requested that the newer victims be brought to him first since they were more likely to hold evidence. He worked alongside Carly who documented the victims as they came in, whilst Owen tried to determine cause of death, date of death and identification.

# #

Hours later when it was too dark to work even with floodlights they brought in, Jack and Ianto found Owen sitting on the floor head between his knees as he recovered.

"You alright there?" Jack murmured as he too slid down the wall to sit opposite Owen.

"Peachy." Owen grumbled rubbing his face.

"Update?" Jack asked as Ianto sat down gracefully next to him, taking Jacks hand from under the folds of his coat.

"Small miracles, no sign of sexual abuse pre or post mortem, deaths are inconclusive on the skeletons, the most recent victims however show signs of suffocation, if that were the case with all of them unless it was particularly violent enough to cause fractures, it wouldn't show up in the autopsy of the skeletons." Owen told them.

"So why did he kidnap and kill them? Has Maria been found?"

"No, so far she hasn't, I don't think she's here either. There are no freshly dug graves in the field, and she certainly wasn't in the house."

"So where is she?" Ianto voiced.

"Andy said that children went missing, bodies never recovered, I've been running dental checks on the list he had and so far none. What if this isn't the centre of this case. What if this was only connected to Maria?"

"So he had his eye on Maria and someone took her away to stop it?"

"But what about the other missing person?" Jack asked. "We need to get these victims identified to see if this is part of the case."

Owen nodded. "I'll get the dental work done and send duplicates to the hub, Ianto, I'll need you to run comparisons in the list of cases that Andy has gathered."

Ianto nodded.

"If this has nothing to do with the other cases than we'll need to pull out." Jack said hesitantly.

Owen nodded slowly. "I get that, but I want to help here, just give me a few days, until we do the dental checks."

"That's fine, I'll get Tosh to get the dental records for the list of possible victims for Ianto to compare." Jack nodded.

#

#

**Review please.**

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	14. The Ombra

AN: Sorry for the delay in updating I moved house over the weekend and its been a bit hectic, but I'm in my new house now and internet is back so I can upload again.

Reviews have dropped a bit, please let me know if you are still enjoying the story.

Again, huge thank you to everyone that has reviewed the last chapter, as well as all the reviews from Village-Mystic who brought up some relevant questions I can answer here. Firstly as to the new characters I've introduced Matt and Jane you said you were surprised that they were all so young, since they were in their late 20's, all the Torchwood characters, aside from Jack are under 30, with Ianto being 27 when he died in COE, working in Torchwood for roughly 5 years at least. The people that Jack hires are brilliant people that excel in their fields, going far in a short period of time.

As to your question about Countrycide, I did downplay Ianto's injuries because Suzie was the focus of the episode; she took the majority of the blows in their 'tenderising' giving her the fatal injuries that led to her death. Ianto would have been checked out thoroughly by the ambulance crews and they'd have taken him to hospital if there was a risk of internal injuries. You're right that an MRI can detect internal injuries although a CT or ultrasound are more commonly used for this. Lack of shock and stable blood pressure and pulse as well as no excessive pain for the injuries would give no cause for alarm for internal bleeding. Jack going to Ianto's house that night was his way of double checking that he was fine and not suffering.

Hope that explains your questions, feel free to ask others.

Onto the new chapter.

Chapter 14:The Ombra.

The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.

_-Lois McMaster Bujold_

Ianto and Jack drove home, leaving Owen at the site with Andy and Carly. Once back in Ianto's flat Jack changed into some sweatpants and a t-shirt and started reading through the reports that Tosh had sent him.

Ianto had changed too, they were going to have a few hours rest before heading to the hub to take over from Tosh and Matt who had been at the hub all night so far. Jack texted Gwen and Jane and told them to be at the hub first thing.

"You alright?" Ianto asked as he sat next to Jack on the sofa and put his hand on his knee.

"Yeah, fine." Jack mumbled.

It wasn't often that Jack willing changed into something so casual, he only did it mainly when he was moody enough that he didn't care and usually only when no one was really there to see him, which spoke wonders that Jack was comfortable enough with Ianto that he would do that.

Ianto didn't say anything just stroked the back of Jack's neck soothingly as Jack concentrated on the reports.

"This case is really….I don't know." Jack started with a sigh and dropping the report in his hand onto the coffee table.

"Difficult?" Ianto said.

"Yes, all the reports indicate that the kids disappeared without a trace, how are we supposed to figure this out? There were no readings from the strip of road that Maria disappeared from, I doubt that any of our case victims will be found at that paedophiles place." Jack said frustrated.

"I got a message from Tosh and Gwen." Ianto said a moment later. "They sent me some details on some related cases, Jack I think this thing has been going on for years."

"What do you mean?"

"Gwen went to interview a few of the families, as did Jane. They also did some more research, they've uncovered dozens of more reports, some dating back 70 years." Ianto said showing Jack the email they sent him.

"So, what does that tell us? Whoever is doing this doesn't have the same life capacity as humans."

"Or there is some sort of organisation here."

"Where do the kids go?"

"Why these kids?" Ianto added.

"These visions have been bugging me." Jack said pulling up a few details.

"Each of the visions indicates that the child was in serious mortal danger." Ianto said. "So does this make this a good thing? Or does the vision tell the parent what will happen to the child? Or does it mean that they are the cause of the vision as a diversion?"

"There must be a way they find out how they decide which child to take."

Ianto nodded. "But how do we search for that?"

"I have no idea." Jack sighed putting the laptop on the coffee table and sitting back grasping one of Ianto's hands.

*PHOENIX*

Jack called a team meeting at lunchtime the two days later, Owen had left the makeshift graveyard seeing as he had arranged the dental work to be forwarded to him as it came through. Tosh had already gathered the necessary dental records of the majority of the casefiles that Andy had flagged and set up a comparative program to find matches.

The team discussed the case at length, bouncing ideas off each other and thinking of ways to find who or what was behind this. They had investigated many of the cases, each one leading to a dead end, they had nothing at all to go on.

Part way through the meeting the intruder alert sounded, Jack leapt to his feet, Ianto hot on his heels.

"It's the intruder alarm." Ianto said as Jack left the boardroom.

Down in the main area of the hub a young girl about 9 or 10 years old stood.

"Who is that?" Gwen asked.

Jack recognised the girl and went over to her slightly warily.

The rest of the team followed their leader, suspicious that a child could enter easily.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked the child.

The girl was watching Jack carefully, ignoring the others. "Can I read your cards?" She intoned mimicking the first words she ever said to him.

Jack nodded. "I guess I don't have a choice in this."

The girl smiled and moved to the coffee table in front of the couch. Jack ran over to her.

"I remember what you did last time." He chuckled as he moved the various mugs and plates off the coffee table from their earlier coffee break.

The girl merely smiled and kneeled down as Jack sunk into the couch.

"What is this Jack?" Owen asked confused, a girl broke into the hub to give Jack a card reading?

Jack ignored Owen and remained looking at the girl. She held the stack of cards in her small hands, she peered at him before she placed three cards down in a row.

"You are conflicted." The girl stated looking at the three cards then back at Jack. "But not for the reasons I first read your cards."

Jack nodded hesitantly.

"The road has diverged yet you are still undecided on which path to travel."

"This is a load of bull Jack." Owen said in a tone of voice that indicated just how much of a joke he thought it was.

"She gave me a reading once that was entirely true." Jack defended her.

Ianto had moved forward and took a look at the cards himself. "Look." He pointed at one of the cards 'the Fool' in the image it looked suspiciously like Jack.

The girl drew another three cards above the first three. "The Chariot, you are re-examining your life." She stated in a pleased tone.

"Let's stop with the cryptic, how are you here?" Jack cut her off from her reading.

"How are you here?" She retorted airily.

"I asked first."

"If you have a space hopper, I have a scooter." She said with a smile, reminding Jack of the conversation he had with the Doctor about his vortex manipulator being a space hopper in time travel whereas the TARDIS was a sportscar.

"Right." Jack frowned.

"My first reading helped you, did it not?"

"I thought you were sent to me to get me to work for Torchwood." Jack admitted since it was her reading that led him to take the job.

The girl shrugged. "Not by Torchwood."

Jack appraised the girl, she was definitely more forthcoming now. "So, what does all this tell me?"

The girl looked over the cards again and back at the team. "It tells me that you've changed for the better, but you need to do more. Forget everything you think you know about the universe, if it has to happen it will happen."

"That's dangerous." Jack frowned.

The girl shrugged once more. "You are still young."

Jack chuckled.

"I know everything about you Jack," The girl continued with a smile. "We'll meet again when you are an old man, just before you see the Doctor for the very last time as you die for the final time."

Jack froze. "What?"

"You have a lot of growing up to do in the meanwhile. Torchwood is only the start." She continued airily.

"Why now?"

"The case you are working on,"

"What do you know?"

"You'll never find them, it's impossible."

"Apparently so is my existence, yet here I am, so tell me." Jack said.

The Tarot girl looked at him carefully as if appraising him. She drew another three cards separate to Jack's set. "They were stolen."

"By whom." Gwen asked from behind her.

"Not by whom, by what." She corrected. "There is so much you have yet to learn about the universe."

"They were taken from their parents, from people that loved them, and you know about this. You need to help us get them back." Gwen continued in an accusing tone as if the young girl had taken them herself.

"They are dead, in a physical context at least." She answered.

"Where are they?"

"It's hard to explain, they are here but you can't see them. I can show you." She directed the comment to Jack.

"What has this to do with the man that was planning on taking Maria, all his victims." Andy asked.

She turned to Andy. "Nothing, they saved her from him, but they couldn't save all of them." She replied sadly.

"Why were they taken?" Jack asked.

"To save them."

"That's a load of rubbish." Gwen scolded. "Jack!"

"To save them from what those visions foretold." Ianto asked ignoring Gwen.

"Yes, they were taken to stop them from suffering unnecessarily, they are happy where they are. Franklin is with them."

"What?" Jack asked in horror.

"I can show you." The Tarot girl stood up and collected her cards.

"Where is he?" Jack demanded angrily.

"He's with the others, I'll show you."

Jack nodded.

"But not them." The girl said as everyone took a step towards them.

"I'm taking Ianto with me." Jack said.

"I know."

The girl turned to leave and Jack followed her at a sedate pace with a puzzled Ianto at his side.

The girl led them to a deserted stretch of beach. "Close your eyes and hold hands." They stood in a circle and did as they were told.

Figures began emerging around them, everything seemed like it was in sepia, as if there wasn't enough light to see clearly and in colour.

Small hands brushed Jacks and he pulled away from Ianto and the girl, amazed that they stood completely still as if they were frozen in time and he wasn't.

He turned and focused on the small hand tugging at his and he recognised the girl at once, she was Maria, the girl they were searching for, she smiled at him and took his hand, leading him down the beach where he could hear the laughter and yells of children playing.

A hundred yards down the beach were dozens of children playing together, all the figures were greyish in tone but were bright and glowing. It was a beautiful sight.

Maria led him around the throng of children, they all smiled or waved at him, moving their play around him, he watched as the girls played skip or hopscotch, boys and girls playing tag or the boys kicking a ball around, all the children appeared happy, as if forever suspended in play.

He turned and saw that Ianto and the Tarot girl had caught up and were watching the scene with bright eyes.

Jack turned and saw a sight that clenched at his heart, a small 7 year old boy with his hair and bright smile spotting him and ran full pelt at him jumping in Jack's arms that caught him. Jack swept him up into a hug and held him tight, almost not believing this was happening.

Franklin Harkness was Jack's first born child, back when Jack was stranded in 1869 he travelled to America where he fell in love and married a girl living on the East Coast, his wife died giving birth to their child, a boy that he called Franklin, after his father. When Franklin was barely 7 years old he disappeared without a trace, Jack searched for him for years only giving up years later, a bar brawl that led to his death and realisation that he was immortal.

Franklin had been taken like these other children, he carried his son over to Ianto and the Tarot girl.

"What happened with them?"

"They were stolen so they didn't suffer a fate worse than death." She told them sadly. "They play together forever."

"Who did this?"

"An alien race with psychic abilities, they saw a child in danger over two hundred years ago, before Franklin, and they foresaw a death that was so horrific and terrifying they stole the child from time in shock, to spare him."

"And they keep doing it."

"Yes, each one of these children was going to die a horrible death, this way their childhood and their sanity were preserved. They are all happy here." She told them.

"How do you know about this?"

"Because they stole me too." She revealed.

"But you don't look like the others, you look alive." Jack told her.

"I am alive. It's difficult to explain, just know that. You have to leave Franklin here Jack."

Jack looked at Franklin, who was happily holding onto his dad's neck but smiled at her words.

"Why can't I take him with me?" Jack asked desperately.

"He's dead; he's been dead a long time. He doesn't belong within time anymore." She sounded sad to tell him that.

"What about these aliens? They won't stop doing this?"

"No, and even if they were the bad guys, there is nothing you can do to stop them, they don't live on the physical plane."

"What are they called?" Ianto asked softly.

"Some call them the Ombra," She said proudly. "The Ghosts,"

"What do they get from it?"

"They are sensitive to emotional pain, by living on Earth, although in a separate plane, they are subjected to it, when they saved the first child they realised that it formed a buffer, gave them peace of mind. The second and third each helped with the buffer between themselves and the volatile emotions of humans."

"So they are using it for their benefit?"

"Not entirely. It was a coincidence, but it relies heavily on the happiness of these children, if they took a child that had a bright future in front of them it would destroy whatever buffer there was. They also do not need to save any more children, because more children does not improve or increase the buffer anymore."

"So why do they do it?"

"To save them."

Jack nodded and looked back at Franklin desperately.

"Are you happy here Frankie?" Jack asked his son.

"Yes, Daddy. All my friends are here now." He said hugging his dad tightly. "But I miss you."

"I miss you too son." Jack said emotionally hugging him.

Jack was forced to say goodbye to Franklin and left with Ianto, the Tarot girl leaving during their walk back up the beach.

*PHOENIX*

Andy followed up on the case against the suspect involved in Maria's case, with the overwhelming evidence that he murdered dozens of children over a 30 year period of time, each victim's family was contacted and given peace of mind as to where their loved one was, Andy using one or two Torchwood tricks to make sure that the skeletons most difficult to identify were identified. He made sure to attend the swift court case and watched as the man was sentenced to prison for life with no chance of parole. Andy walked from the courtroom knowing that the man could never hurt another child again.

*PHOENIX*

Review please!


	15. Combat

_**Disclaimer: If I was imaginative enough to create Torchwood and the recognisable characters I definitely wouldn't have killed off Ianto. So, anything you recognise belongs to BBC and Starz America and not by me, I make no money. Jane and Matt are mine though.**_

_**AN: Thank you all to everyone that has been reading this and all the reviews I have received, I love and cherish each review :) I know that it has been a week since my last update and I apologise for the delay. Life has been hectic lately and I've not been able to get this chapter up, literally at the last minute I added so much more into it as I realised how lacking it was, so hopefully it is so much better for you to read. Apologies for any grammatical errors the edit was pretty quick.**_

_**I'm going away to visit some family so I'm not sure how much writing I'd be able to do during that time. But I'll do my best to edit and update the next chapter before the weekend. The more reviews I get the faster I update ;)**_

_**En****joy**_

_"Pay attention to where you are going because without meaning you might get nowhere."_  
><em>— A.A. Milne<em>

Chapter 15: Combat.

Several weeks after the incident with the Ombra, whilst Ianto and Tosh were having a movie night indoors which Jack had to duck out of because of a few errant Weevils running around the city, he bumped into Gwen and Rhys having dinner in an outside area of a restaurant as he chased the Weevil past them.

Gwen jumped up at the sight of Jack, grinning happily as she rushed to him.

"Oh my god! What happened?" Gwen asked as she touched the wound on his chest that the Weevil he just danced with gave him before he lost sight of it.

"Ah, its nothing." Jack waved it off and walked closer to Rhys who had stood up. "You must be Rhys, Gwen speaks of you often." Jack held a hand out to shake Rhys hand.

"Right." Rhys shook his hand feeling slightly put out at the handsome man that his girlfriend greeted entirely too happily.

"Captain Jack Harkness." He introduced himself.

"Her boss eh?" Rhys said sounding slightly pissed off now knowing it was also the man that Gwen spoke of too often.

"Do you need a hand Jack?" Gwen asked eagerly.

"Err." Jack floundered. "Got a tricky one here but you're having dinner." He brushed her off. "I'll call Andy or Jane, they are on call."

"Well I'm here now." Gwen said picking up her bag and slinging it over her neck.

"We're having dinner Gwen. You can't just…" Rhys said angrily.

Jack made a tactical retreat at that point and left just in time for Rhys to burst out at Gwen, probably righteously.

Gwen caught up with Jack minutes later and brushed off the incident.

"I was serious Gwen, you shouldn't let things with Rhys slip. Have a life." Jack told her.

"No one else at Torchwood does." Gwen said in defence.

"You're wrong there." Jack retorted with a smile.

Jack took off then having spotted the errant Weevil, going into the nearby car park, they chased it but a van and several men in black jumped out and tasered the Weevil into the back of the van before peeling away.

_*tw*_

"Someone is kidnapping Weevils?" Owen asked in confusion at the staff meeting the next morning after being almost literally dragged into work by Jack.

"Apparently so." Jack said sipping his coffee. "And it's irritating the other Weevils."

"The Weevil downstairs, she's irritated?" Ianto double checked.

"Her name is Janet." Jack smiled. "And yes, Owen here thinks they have low level psychic abilities and she can probably sense something is wrong."

"Must you give every resident we have a name?" Ianto muttered with an indulgent smile.

"Yes, it humanises them, makes Owen less likely to accidentally get them killed." Jack replied.

"Oi, that was once, I didn't know that species was allergic to gluten." Owen complained.

"Really? Gluten?" Gwen asked.

"I told you what to feed Brian." Jack said in a sing song voice.

"Brian?" Gwen chuckled.

"I thought you were being weird." Owen shrugged. He did feel bad that he accidentally caused the alien to die.

"How did they find out about them?" Jane said reverting their attention back to the case.

"Have they done this before?"

"Why kidnap them? For what purpose?"

"No idea yet." Jack shrugged. "Tosh and I tracked the van through the CCTV cameras to a warehouse which we checked out early this morning, they were gone, but left someone behind, the dead man down in autopsy." Jack drew Owen's attention to his first task of the day.

"We figure that maybe he got hurt in transporting the weevil and was left behind because they don't want to draw attention to themselves." Tosh said taking a bite of a pastry that Ianto had supplied them with.

"But the problem is that the Weevil has nothing to give to anyone who captures them, so why do they want them, and how do they even know about them?" Jack continued.

"I want to look into who's managing the warehouse we tracked the van to. Someone must have known it was empty."

"There has been a string of suspicious injuries reported at the hospital." Ianto interjected smoothly as he scrolled through his PDA.

"What kind of injuries?"

"Weevil like, sir. The latest was brought in last night, has injuries consistent of a large vicious animal." Ianto said.

"So, there's also a rise in Weevil attacks, great." Owen said.

"Unless it's related?" Jane shrugged.

"Great, we'll go check this out then." Jack said.

_*tw*_

Jack and Ianto checked out the man in the hospital as well as the other people admitted with suspicious animal bites but didn't find out much.

Owen in the meanwhile went down to the man in his autopsy bay as Gwen rifled through his personal belongings.

"When we found him, someone called his phone, told us to drop this whole thing." Tosh explained.

"They were watching you?" Matt asked as he stood next to Tosh.

"Must have been, or they saw us enter gave it a minute then made the call. They know we were on their trail, they were able to stop the CCTV from recording at their arrival." Tosh continued.

"Dan Hodges, date of birth 21st January 1979. Salesman for web publishing software." Gwen interrupted as she looked as his wallet and took out his driver's license. "Looks like he was married with a kid." She added softly as she took out a photo of a family of three.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." Owen said gruffly holding up Hodges arm and showing them the wedding band on his ring finger. "Definitely death by Weevil, but he took quite a beating before that." Owen frowned. "Weevils go for the kill, straight for the jugular, yet he's got black eye, bruising on his cheekbones, same across the ribs."

"So he was beaten and then thrown in with a Weevil?" Gwen asked horrified. "Torture?"

"Maybe not." Jane said moving closer to Hodges. "See here, he was in a fight but look, his knuckles are all bruised, he fought back, fairly."

"Was it a fair fight? Maybe the other guy lost and threw this bloke here with the Weevil in retaliation." Owen mused.

"Maybe."

"But why bother with the bare knuckle fight in the first place if you've got a Weevil on a leash? Why not just set the Weevil on him?" Owen continued.

"I'm going to go into Hodges past, find any connections with this Lynch bloke." Jane said, her past as a private investigator once again coming in use.

"Maybe its the perfect kill?" Matt suggested. "Weevils don't leave a trace to the killer behind, it's clean, efficient, and well, pretty quick usually."

"Great, piece of piss to find these guys then." Owen said sarcastically.

"Any luck with those phone numbers?" Matt asked as Ianto joined them.

"No, last call was blocked and the call history has been erased, no way to recover it." Ianto said.

"Brilliant." Owen said angrily chucking something into the corner.

"What about this guy?" Gwen asked ignoring Owen's hissy fit. "Someone's got to tell his family that he's dead."

Everyone seemed to look straight at Gwen but not saying what they were thinking.

"Great, bloody great." She grumbled.

_*tw*_

Whilst Owen and Gwen went to Hodges house and Gwen told his family that he was dead Tosh came up with the brilliant idea of going undercover to find out what the Estate Agent dealing with the warehouse knew, if he were just a contact and informed them that the warehouse was empty or more involved.

"You're going into property," Jack gleefully told Owen as he came back alone, Gwen sitting smugly in her chair trying not to make eye contact with a furious Owen.

"What?"

"We think that the Estate Agent is passing information onto these guys about the warehouse that was empty, see the van went directly to the warehouse, so they must have known it was empty." Tosh explained.

"Tosh is in the middle of making your cover story." Jack continued.

"Why me?"

"They saw Gwen and I when we were chasing the Weevil, and they saw Tosh with me at the warehouse."

"Why not any of the others? Ianto?" Owen grumbled.

"Ianto is Welsh, the idea is that you are an out of town business man, needing local knowledge." Jack said.

Owen shrugged understanding that. "Jane? Matt?"

"Jane is going through Hodges back ground, trying to find his connections to these people and Matt still has that gash across his face from that Hoix that you almost fumbled sedating." Jack accused.

Owen grumbled and shook his shoulders. "So."

"So, he can't look like a respectable business man if he's got a cut across his face, can he? So it'll have to be you."

"Andy?"

"Is with the Police for the next few days, you know the shifts." Jack continued with a hard edge on his voice.

"Fine, could do with being someone else." Owen muttered.

_*tw*_

Once the undercover scenario was complete and Tosh and Ianto ran it through with him, Owen left for his appointment at Lynch's Estate Agents, the holding Agents for the warehouse where the Weevil was taken and where Hodges was found.

Owen's introduction with Mark Lynch went smoothly and within minutes of stepping inside he had a device attached to the back of Lynch's laptop that allowed Tosh unrestricted access to all of his harddrives including encrypted files.

As Owen left Tosh smoothly predicted Lynch's every move as he checked out Owen's back story, down to the phone call.

"You are amazing." Matt said in complete awe.

Tosh blushed as Jack grinned at her genius.

"There's been another set of suspicious injuries, Jack." Ianto said. "This time, the guys alive said he was attacked by men with knives, yet the ambulance crew said it looked like animal bites."

"Right, we'll go check it out. Tosh I want you and Matt to keep an eye on Lynch. Send me an update when Jane checks in." Jack said as Ianto brought their coats over.

"I'll come with you." Gwen said glad for something to do.

"No, go home Gwen. I told you not to let it drift." He said honestly as she nodded.

_*tw*_

"We play good cop, bad cop pretty well." Jack grinned as he slid into the drivers side of the SUV as he left the hospital with Ianto.

"That wasn't good cop, bad cop Jack." Ianto smiled. "That was us ganging up on the poor bloke, what do you think he meant? Everyone would kill him?"

"Makes us more certain that this is some kind of gang thing." Jack shrugged as he pulled out of the car park.

"Are we?" Ianto asked as he buckled his seat belt. "Unless the top guy has a bunch of hired goons."

"Still it means that there is a level of organisation here that we didn't suggest before."

"The level of fear instilled in that man also tells us that he honestly believes they'll go through with the threat." Ianto said.

Jack nodded in agreement.

"Does that mean that Hodges was trying to raise the alarm?" Ianto asked.

"We don't know, we can't assume that he's entirely innocent in all of this." Jack replied.

Ianto nodded in agreement and linked his PDA to the hub systems to update them on their drive back to the hub.

_*tw*_

Later on once Jack was back at the hub he considered his next move, there was no way he was going to allow Owen to be hurt but in the same way he needed some form of catharsis that he couldn't find on his own.

Jack eventually called Andy to his office and organised to get some Police armed officers to help them raid the warehouse when the time was right, with that kind of back up, Jack could concentrate on dealing with Owen and the Weevils.

Owen didn't check in with the rest of the group by the time that Jack initiated his second plan of the night, he answered his phone and just told Matt to bugger off.

Andy was currently organising the swat teams they would be 'borrowing' promising to hand over the case with the local PD once the Weevils were contained. They were going to make sure that the perpetrators were charged for the crimes they were committing.

_*tw*_

Jack reconsidered his original idea of sending Janet out there as bait since it failed spectacularly last time, instead Jack decided to get in the SUV and go to the Weevil hotspots in hopes of running into them, he send Matt and Tosh in one SUV to one hotspot whilst he and Ianto took the second SUV and went to another hotspot. Within an hour of waiting they received reports of a Weevil and chased it. Once the Weevil had been chased and caught by the men in the white van Jack called Matt and told them which direction they were heading in hoping to keep a trail on it. Jane was in her own car a mile away and was given the location as well; Tosh was sitting in the SUV trying to use the CCTV cameras to track the van as it went.

They lost the van after ten minutes of driving through the city centre and Matt went to help Tosh cover the CCTV cameras in an attempt to find it again when Jack heard Gwen's voice.

"I thought I told you to go home?" Jack asked confused.

"Yes, well," Gwen replied. "There's a text message on the first victim, Dan Hodges mobile, it's a postcode. I just checked it and it's a holding that Lynch has."

"Good work." Jack praised almost hitting himself in the face that he forgot that bit. "Send it to us."

"So Lynch tells people the houses that are empty?" Ianto guessed. "Sends them the postcode by message."

"What happens when they get there?" Tosh asked over the comms link.

Gwen rushed to her car to meet them at the postcode that Lynch sent to everyone, she pulled up just as Jack's SUV arrived. Matt and Tosh were moments behind and Jane had already arrived.

"I've called Andy." Ianto told the others as they all gathered.

"Called Andy, why?" Gwen asked confused.

"We need to find Owen and shut this operation down." Jack said ignoring Gwen for the moment, knowing that time was of the essence. "Come on."

Jack didn't wait for Andy and SWAT, Owen could be in danger so instead he lead the group inside. Once inside they made a beeline for the main auditorium and found a steel cage had been erected in the middle of a huge room, balconies on the level above offering a good view of the action, it was an archaic form of fight club. Contestants would battle against a Weevil for as long as they could manage without getting killed, the person in the cage for the longest time won the prize.

Owen had gone into the cage and Jack cursed at the bad timing. He strode forward, calling Ianto to sedate the Weevil, tranquiliser darts weren't very effective but it would help enough to provide a distraction from Owen and get Jack into the cage.

Ianto shot the Weevil twice with the special tranquiliser that Jack handed him, the Weevil was enraged at leapt at the cage side closest to Ianto in an attempt to get through. Owen backed away from the Weevil, as Gwen yelled to get the cage open and get Owen out.

Jane and Matt were keeping people back from the cage and within seconds the SWAT teams and Andy arrived and formed a solid barricade to stop people from escaping. Jack leapt into the cage and shoved Owen out of it, the Weevil turned as soon as Jack entered the cage.

"Jack!" Ianto yelled a warning.

Jack spun on his heels and saw the Weevil charging, Jack took a defensive stance, it was too late to try and get out himself, Owen still hadn't got out.

"Jack!" Gwen yelled behind him.

Jack braced himself for the impact, the Weevil shoved him against the side of the cage, Jack braced his hands to fend himself from the sharp teeth of the Weevil, one hand holding the wrist to stop the claws, the Weevils other hand was free and scratched Jacks side.

Jack yelled as he broke free from the Weevil and dodged the swipe at his chest that the Weevil took, batting the arm away from him and hitting the Weevil.

He vaguely heard Gwen yell for someone to shoot the Weevil, and Tosh yell hesitantly that they could still contain it, Jack had always enforced the capture of Weevils, never the kill, unless there had been significant blood lust of which Jack knew that the majority of the time the Weevil would struggle to contain and couldn't be released again.

Jack fished in his pockets for some Weevil spray and cursing himself as he realised it was probably in the SUV. The Weevil and Jack were dancing around each other taking the odd swipe; Gwen was standing by the cage door and shouted for him to get out.

Jack shook his head, if he turned and made for the door the Weevil would jump him before he even made a step.

The Weevil attacked again and Jack used its weight to divert it and crash it into the cage wall, he slammed the Weevil into the cage wall again and yelled at Gwen or whomever to get him some Weevil spray, the Weevil pushed off the cage door and spun them around slicing Jacks chest baring its teeth.

Jack leapt back in pain, he unholstered his Webley, he hated killing them but he' couldn't let it get out whilst it was this blood thirsty.

When the Weevil pounced again it pinned one of Jacks hands with its claw tearing at his lower arms in the process, the sharp teeth digging into Jacks neck and shoulder.

Jack managed to shoot the Weevil in the gut twice at the awkward angle his arm was in and heard another shot ring out and the Weevil collapse on top of him.

Ianto pulled the Weevil off Jack, pulling off his coat. "Jack!"

He sounded really worried Jack thought as he looked blearily at Jack.

"He bit me?" Jack said sounding surprised.

"Yes, he did." Ianto replied pressing something to Jack's neck to stop the flow of blood, the thick dark blood seeping from the deep wound was giving Ianto serious worries.

"I'll be fine. Just a scratch." Jack murmured feeling light headed.

Matt rushed over and took over whilst Tosh and Gwen took positions over the weevil as Jane handcuffed and bagged it in case it survived the shots Ianto and Jack gave it.

The SWAT teams rounded up all the people inside and arrested them all, Andy was in control of the operation and did a splendid job. The Weevil was transported back to the hub as was Jack.

"He's lost too much blood." Matt yelled as Jack was taken into the medical bay.

"We should have taken him to a hospital." Gwen fretted.

"He's told me never to take him to a hospital." Ianto said.

"He said the same to me." Owen said seriously.

Matt and Owen both worked over Jack who had lost consciousness in the SUV, his blood pressure was too low, his pulse thready and his breathing erratic. Owen hooked him straight up to a unit of blood whilst they worked on improving his heart rate and blood pressure.

"It's too much." Matt muttered as they worked over him cleaning and sealing his wounds that were still seeping blood.

Owen didn't respond but looked up at Matt meaningfully.

30 minutes later Jack's heart gave out on the stress it was under and went into arrhythmia as Matt and Owen were still working over him.

"He's coding." Matt said unnecessarily pulling the defibrillator closer.

"Give him the epi to the heart and we'll zap him." Owen ordered nodding as Matt checked the volume.

Gwen almost shrieked as Matt delivered the injection to Jacks heart and Owen started the compressions and prepped the defibrillator.

"Clear." Owen said pressing the paddles over the pads on Jack's exposed and bloody chest.

He tried four times increasing the voltage at each interval, Matt called him after the fourth try.

"He's gone. It's too late." Matt said soothingly.

"No." Owen yelled upping the voltage and trying again.

The heart monitor had long since flat lined and was a persistent drone in the room that blared like a klaxon would.

Owen dropped the paddles and backed away more than ten minutes later. "It's my fault." He whispered.

"No, it's not." Tosh defended him immediately.

"It is." Owen muttered abruptly leaving the medical bay, he stopped by Ianto's side. "I'm sorry mate." He said sincerely before rushing away.

"Tosh go after him." Ianto heard himself say. Tosh hesitated before running after Owen.

Gwen startled down the stairs and stared at Jack's body, he was covered in blood, with gauze and bandages covering his wounds, the pads from the defibrillator still attached to his chest. Matt turned off the heart monitor.

Gwen touched Jack and sobbed.

"Get out." Ianto said quietly.

Gwen startled at his tone, and Matt used that shock to drag her out, he had known for ages about Jack and Ianto, and knew that Gwen had a thing for Jack like a lot of people but also knew that she would over step her boundaries, and right now it was Ianto who had the right to be by Jack right now.

Ianto stepped to Jack's side, he distractedly pulled the pads for the defibrillator off Jack's chest and dumped them into the blood streaked tray on the trolley next to the bed. Ianto took hold of Jack's hand and held onto the warmth that he felt there, he run his fingers through Jack's hair and despaired that things ended so prematurely.

_*tw*_

_Reviews make the second part of this appear much sooner...its blackmail, but if it works..._

_*tw*_


	16. Truths revealed

**AN: So so sorry about being so delayed in getting this chapter up. Real life has hit me hard, I was promoted at work and its a lot more responsibility and hours and university has started again so have been trying to get everything sorted for that. **

**Thanks to all who have stuck with me so far, you guys are all brilliant!**

**Enjoy!**

_**"How do you spell 'love'?" - Piglet **_  
><em><strong> "You don't spell it...you feel it." - Pooh" <strong>_  
><em><strong> — A.A. Milne<strong>_

_**Chapter 16:**_

Things between Jack and Ianto were amazing, Ianto thought as he held Jack's hand and staring at his lifeless body, they spent almost all their free time together, Jack spent a lot of time at Ianto's flat and they shared Christmas together like any other couple. Ianto had also recently told his sister that he was seeing Jack. He was glad that she wasn't bothered by it and she wanted to meet Jack.

"One way to get out of meeting my sister I suppose." Ianto murmured sitting down at Owen's chair. "Rather dramatic escape route though sir, even for you."

Ianto closed his eyes and tried to hold his composure, he was in the middle of work, and he couldn't break down now.

Ianto heard Andy come back to the hub some time later happy in his successful operation and asking after Jack's injury. Ianto heard Andy's distraught voice and felt him hovering by the entrance of the medical bay but thankfully he didn't come inside. Ianto sat there for hours, and at some point realised that Owen and Tosh had returned, so everyone was here. Everyone, except Jack. Jack was growing cold and Ianto held onto his hands in a vain attempt to try to keep him warm.

Several hours after Jack died, after Ianto refused to let Matt coax him into putting Jack into cold storage, Jack sat up with a gasp of air, shocking Ianto who fell off his stool.

The sudden sound and the crash of the stool brought everyone rushing into the medical bay to see Jack sitting upright, completely fine, taking deep breaths of air, absentmindedly pulling at the bandages and things on his chest.

"Jack!" Ianto stood up quickly. "How? I mean. What?"

Jack looked back at Ianto, and then turned to the rest of the group all standing with varying degrees of shock etched on their faces, at least no one fainted.

"I'm feeling better now?" Jack said quirkily.

"But you died." Gwen stammered.

"Yes, I was there." Jack retorted rolling his eyes.

"You were dead."

"Apparently."

"Your heart stopped for hours."

"Yeah."

"You were getting cold." Gwen continued.

"Okay." Jack shrugged.

"You came back from the dead?" Gwen asked.

"Yes."

"But how?"

Jack sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I can't die."

"You just did." Gwen interrupted.

"OK, fine." He rolled his eyes, 'semantics' he thought. "I die, but I come back. I can't stay dead." Jack admitted watching Ianto carefully for his reaction.

"How many times have you died?" Matt asked. "Is this a one off? You don't look shocked this has happened to you."

Jack shrugged before deciding that honesty may be the best here. "Give or take, between 1300 and 1400 -ish. You tend to stop counting after a hundred or so."

"How old are you?" Jane asked. "There's no way someone could die that many times in a normal life span. You know in 30 years or so that you look." She elaborated when Gwen looked at her confused.

"You don't want to know." Jack replied.

"Ianto might, you've not told him any of this." Jane insisted seeing the shock on the young Welshman's face who hadn't yet said anything.

"I'm about 170 years old, physically." Jack admitted.

"That's impossible." Owen muttered.

"I'm an impossible thing." Jack retorted self depreciatively.

"How did this happen?"

"There was an accident when I travelled with the Doctor, I died for real and was revived but it went too far and it brought me back forever."

"Forever?" Ianto echoed strangely.

"Yes, the Doctor can't reverse it. I've died almost every single possible way there is and nothing sticks."

"There must be something that would work, you know like vampires, only a stake in the heart works." Andy said trailing off at the end at the others expressions.

"Nope, stake in the heart doesn't work." Jack said bitterly getting off the bed and pulling the rest of his tattered shirt off his back.

"Your injuries are completely healed." Owen said in amazement, Jack had pulled his bandages off and his flesh was smooth and unscarred.

"Yeah, comes with the territory." Jack said.

"So how erm…" Gwen asked. "You know, knowing all you know, and aliens and stuff and well being 170 years old."

"How did I get here?" Jack asked knowing what she was trying to ask. Gwen nodded. "I made my way here in an attempt to find the Doctor again after we…got separated but accidentally over shot the 21st century which I was aiming for and landed in 1869. Incidentally it was the year the rift opened for the first time, so I think my calculations were off and instead deposited me at the rift formation."

"You dodged the question." Owen interrupted. "Where are you from?"

Jack took a breath and looked at Owen. "I was born in the 51st century. On a little colony planet."

"My god, you're not even from Earth?" Gwen asked sounding borderline hysterical.

"Well it's an Earth colony," Jack shrugged. "Things change in the future, Earth changed, it wasn't…" Jack huffed. "It's complicated and it doesn't even matter."

"You've lived through the 20th century? The entire century?" Andy asked.

"Yes, travelled to America, found out I couldn't die after nearly 20 years there, and also realised I wasn't ageing normally, not that I was complaining. I came back to Cardiff because I was more likely to run into the Doctor here by the rift. Accidentally drew Torchwood's attention in 1899 and joined as a freelance."

Ianto looked away at the last revelation in shock drawing Jack's attention.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"CJH, there are records from that time." Ianto admitted. "I just never thought it was you."

Jack paused. "I thought I got rid of them all." He frowned.

"You must have missed one." Ianto said dryly.

"What do they say?" Gwen asked inquisitively.

"Mission reports, Jack coming to their attention, stuff like that." Ianto brushed it off looking away. Ianto in reality had found reports from the investigation into CJH, the torture and experiments that they done on him before he worked for them. There was also a worrying mention of locking him up indefinitely if CJH wouldn't voluntarily work for Torchwood, but he had never connected that it meant Jack, well at least not seriously.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Gwen asked indignantly.

"Why didn't I tell you that I'm immortal?" Jack scoffed. "People can't handle it, they end up resenting me, I learnt to stop telling people." Jack paused and looked at his team. "I know that you lot can handle it, I was just putting it off as all." Jack admitted.

"So is that why you dress like you're from the 1940's?" Ianto asked suddenly changing the tone of the conversation as Jack was getting uncomfortable.

"Yeah, love that time period, was attached to the RAF as an American volunteer back then, fought in both world wars, but in WWII it was good." Jack grinned glad that the topic was on safer ground.

Owen insisted on checking Jack over but Jack refused to let Owen run a few tests instead Jack retreated to his bunker and showered.

* * *

><p>The next day everyone walked on eggshells and occasionally asked Jack questions which he gave up on answering and deflected them instead in his usual fashion.<p>

Jack and Ianto were lying in bed at Iantos flat, Ianto had laced his fingers with Jack.

"I know you want to ask me questions." Jack smiled as he turned more towards Ianto, moving their entwined hands between their bodies, resting his other hand on Ianto's hip.

"Well naturally, but it doesn't change anything." Ianto said honestly looking down at their entwined hands.

Jack smiled and kissed Ianto softly. "I'm glad that you're not bothered about the whole immortal thing."

"Not at all." Ianto smiled assuredly.

"No questions?" Jack smiled.

"You did mention you were married?" Ianto said looking down.

"Yeah," Jack said. "When I found myself here in 1869 I resolved to live my life here, met a girl in New York, married her, she died in 1889 and shortly after Franklin went missing that I found out death didn't quite stick with me."

"Oh." Ianto replied.

"I've been married a few times and I've erm, got kids too." Jack admitted.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I suppose that's not such a surprise." Ianto relented seeing how long Jack had actually been alive for.

"My first wife she died giving birth to my first child, I called him Franklin after my father. He died, disappeared, when he was 7 years old well, I guess you know that." He said referring to the case a few months back where children were stolen from time to avoid them dying a horrific death, one of the children was his son Franklin.

Ianto nodded in sympathy.

"After joining Torchwood I had a daughter about 20 years later, she died when she was 5 from the consumption."

"Tuberculosis." Ianto said softly.

"Yeah. Nothing I could do to help her."

"I'm so sorry."

Jack shrugged. "My youngest child Alice is living in Bristol. I had another son just before her, he died in the Falklands War, barely 20 years old."

"How old is Alice?"

"34, she's starting to look older than me and she hates it. She has a son."

"You're a grandfather?" Ianto asked with a smile.

"Yeah, Steven is 7 years old now." Jack smiled. "He thinks I'm his uncle not his grandfather."

Ianto shrugged. "At least you're in his life."

"Alice's mother worked for Torchwood as well, she took Alice away from me after she was born, she was names Melissa originally."

"That's cruel, taking your daughter away from you." Ianto said righteously.

Jack shook his head. "She thought I was dangerous, and she's right in a way, people around me end up dead."

"Haven't you ever considered leaving Torchwood?" Ianto asked.

"Sure, I've considered it, but there wasn't enough incentive to get me to leave permanently, I was waiting for the Doctor to come back and staying close to the rift is the best option for finding him again."

"But you found him."

Jack paused. "The Doctor we saw was a later regeneration of the one I knew, I have to find his younger self, and well, chances are that I'll disappear for a while."

"Oh." Ianto said softly, he looked away from Jack.

"I'll be back." Jack promised. "My home is here, I just have to do this, the timelines are in jeopardy if I don't do this and trust me it's not going to be fun. Besides he's the only person in the entire universe that can attempt to put me back to normal, not that I hold much hope that he can."

"Right, if you have to, of course." Ianto replied.

"I've left instructions in my top desk drawer, there's a key for it in my room, when I disappear call a staff meeting and open the instructions."

"OK."

"I'd rather stay you know." Jack said trailing a hand down Ianto's face and resting against his heart.

"How do you know these things?" Ianto asked.

"What things?"

"Just certain things, about missions and cases, about me or the others, just little things, like you know how things are playing out."

"You've not mentioned this before."

"It didn't concern me before, did the Doctor tell you this?"

"No, he can't know either."

"But the things you know, it's like you're going through the motions, like you know what's going to happen before it does. And some of the times, it's like you're trying to remember little things that have happened, like before Gwen joined you forgot all the things Owen and Tosh were going on about and the day to day handling of the hub, and the cases we were on." Ianto said quickly as if he had lingered on this topic for quite some time. "And once or twice you've mentioned in passing as if Gwen was married to Rhys."

Jack sighed he really didn't want to lie to Ianto. "I've gone through some form of time travel." He admitted after thinking it over. "I've lived through the next two years already, and somehow these memories were transported into my younger self."

"How is that possible?" Ianto asked not throwing the explanation away.

"No idea, the Doctor doesn't know either."

"But, I mean…that's a little farfetched." Ianto said. "Not that I don't believe you, it's just." Ianto added.

"I know that Rhys is going to propose to Gwen soon, they'll definitely have a wedding to remember." Jack chuckled. "Gwen will get pregnant about a year after that."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"Torchwood baby."

Jack hummed as if in agreement, telling himself that he was going to stop Torchwood's destruction.

"You can't tell me my personal future." Ianto said as if reminding himself.

"No, but I'm going to improve it." Jack swore.

Ianto leaned his head against Jack's at the implication of that sentence. "I die."

"Everyone does." Jack said bitterly.

"Are you trying to change that?"

"Trying, it didn't quite work for Suzie."

"She died saving Tosh, Matt and I."

"Yeah." Jack mumbled not wanting to mention that whilst it was an improvement on the original way she died it wasn't enough.

"So, what about the others? Do you know when Tosh, Matt, Jane, Andy, and Owen die? What about Gwen, you said she was pregnant?"

"Never hired Matt, Jane and Andy the first time round."

"So just by doing that, things change?"

Jack shrugged. "Sort of, firstly we all have a bit more of a life, I'd like to think that we are happier."

"So we were together in that future, timeline or reality whichever it is." Ianto asked.

"Oh yes." Jack grinned.

"But it was different?"

"Yeah, it was casual at first for us, took us almost a year to admit otherwise." Jack admitted carefully.

"Really?" Ianto smirked.

Jack nodded. "Yeah, we got together properly I guess you could say when I came back from leaving with the Doctor,"

"So, where we are now is more than we were in this other timeline?" Ianto asked.

"Yes, we're much closer, much better together now. I was an idiot, this feels like my second chance with you, or well third chance depending on how you see it."

Ianto nodded. "Wouldn't you have wanted this with anyone else? This second chance I mean?"

"Nope, only with you." Jack said pressing a kiss to Ianto's lips.

"But."

"No buts." Jack kissed him again. "Even if I could have chosen this, I would still have chosen you, I had so many regrets, not just for you, but for the others, this is great that I can make things right."

"Isn't it weird though, you've already had a relationship with me, to go back to square one with me?"

"It's not weird, it's a second chance, you're the same person, it's me that's different, things are the same but different. I don't see it as being weird and I don't compare the two of you, its just me getting things right for a change."

"But the Ianto you knew was older, with you for so long."

"Yeah but he was used to me being emotionally retarded, I was a jerk to him and I'm glad that I can stop that awkward phase. I was trying so hard not to get involved with anyone, and it was casual with the two of us and it suited us, but we became reliant on each other, it became intimate and more than just sex, but we were still on the same rules as the start of our relationship, you thought that I didn't care for you as much as you did for me, yet you still stayed with me."

"Just being with you is amazing." Ianto said sincerely.

"It took you dying for me to admit how I felt for you." Jack admitted sadly. "And here, now things are so much more than they were, so much freer."

"I love you." Ianto confessed suddenly.

"I love you." Jack grinned, feeling so relieved that he could say it finally.

Ianto smiled and tugged Jack forward into a kiss.

"I love you so much." Jack whispered as he kissed Ianto passionately.

* * *

><p><strong><span>Please review and I'll promise to get the next chapter up by Sunday.<span>**


	17. I Remember You

_Chapter 17**: I Remember You.**_

_**A big thank you to everyone who reviewed including those that have recently found this story, I'm thrilled that you are all enjoying it still.**_

_**I Remember You is a song that was released in 1941 that has been covered over a dozen times in the decades that followed, the lyrics were written by someone called Johnny Mercer who apparently wrote them for Judy Garland, who everyone should know as being Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz film in 1939. I wanted something special for this chapter and seeing how it's set in 1941 I thought this was a good idea.**_

_**When my life is through  
>And the angels ask me to recall<br>The thrill of them all  
>Then I will tell them I remember<br>Tell them I remember  
>Tell them I remember you<strong>_

Just over a week after Jack's immortality had been revealed to the team there was a report on strange going on's in an old music hall.

"Right, I'll do this alone. Tosh you have a party to get to, Ianto stay on the comm link." Jack ordered as he put his coat on, Ianto handed Jack his loaded weapon and holster and handed him a PDA.

"Why alone?" Tosh asked curiously, she had come to work all dressed up before she left for her Grandfathers.

"I'll come with you." Ianto said immediately.

"No, this one, I have to go alone." Jack said seriously.

Ianto looked at Jack and his insinuation. "Oh. Really?"

"Yeah, and keep an eye on Gwen and Owen." Jack said in an undertone.

Ianto nodded seriously.

"You're in charge until I get back." Jack continued.

Jack got into the SUV and went to the dance hall alone.

He wanted to avoid opening the rift to suck Tosh and himself back to the present day if it meant him having to life through the timeline linearly again he'd do it. It was a surprise that he hadn't induced some form of paradox due to there being several versions of him running around in the same time period. In 1941 there were at least 4 of him in the same time, it was the reason he had went abroad during the second world war to try and avoid his younger self in London and Cardiff. Jack surmised that he should do the same thing and leave the UK if he got stranded.

Jack looked around the dance hall, he heard the music and was amazed at the sight of the people dancing whilst the Blitz was just outside the door, he grinned at the sight, then he thought that the rift ride was too smooth.

Jack walked through the throng of people, smiling at the vibrancy of the young men and women, he honestly didn't know what to do with himself, he knew Bilis Manger was a threat to Torchwood and he was here right now, maybe he should try and find him.

"Watch where you're going mate." A cockney accent barked after Jack bumped someone.

"An accident, I apologise." Jack grinned.

"What's your name handsome?" The young lady by the side of the man Jack bumped asked smiling flirtaciously. "Do you want to dance?"

"Mary!" The young man shushed her. "We're here together."

"Just being friendly George." Mary shrugged twirling a strand of her hair around her finger looking at Jack still.

"I'm Captain…" Jack began with a flirtatious smile at the young lady before he was interrupted.

"I don't want to know, she's my girl." George interrupted rudely.

"I'm not property George." Mary interrupted. The couple obviously were in a tiff and dragged Jack into it.

"But you're my girlfriend, I don't want you flirting with some upshot here." George shot Jack a filthy look.

"Hey, I'm here just like you are," Jack replied trying not to get involved.

"Let's dance Captain." Mary said grasping the lapels of Jack's coat and wrapping an arm around his neck.

"Get off her." George pulled Mary away and shoved Jack back.

"Alright, alright." Jack laughed it off. "Maybe you want to dance instead?" He joked pushing George out of his personal space.

"Watch it." George snarled throwing a punch at Jack.

Jack pushed George so that he fell onto the floor.

"Break it up men." A newcomer said with authority pushing his way gently into the fray.

George scrambled to his feet and the newcomer stepped in between Jack and George.

"Give it a rest George, go buy Mary a drink and have a sit down." He said determinedly to George gently pushing him away.

"I apologise, my men are lively tonight." He turned around and addressed Jack.

"Not at all." Jack smiled back.

"Captain Jack Harkness 133rd squadron." The newcomer with a similar build and appearance as Jack said shaking his hand warmly.

"Jack!" A voice across the hall called out and Gwen Cooper rushed towards them.

"Gwen?" Jack asked bewildered.

"I'm so glad I found you." She said clearly relieved.

"Smiles please." A man with a camera took a photo of the half ready group that turned automatically to the camera.

"And one more for the records if you please." Bilis Manger said handing the camera to someone else and stepping between the two Captains.

Once the photographer and caretaker stepped away Gwen pounced on Jack again.

"What's going on Jack?"

"I told you not to come here." Jack whispered furiously.

"I'm sorry I didn't catch your name." The real Jack Harkness asked softly.

"Sorry." Jack smiled. "Captain Jonathon Jones, 79th squadron, my friends call me Jack." Jack said amending it so that it made sense that Gwen just called him Jack.

"79th? That's where I want to be posted next." Harkness said happily. "It's good there are more volunteers here, and your friend?"

"Gwen Cooper, Welsh local." Jack introduced them.

Gwen had a startled look on her face, her eyes wide open in shock as she didn't know where to look.

"Hi." She almost squeaked.

"If you'll excuse us Captain, I need to speak with my friend." Jack apologised and grasped Gwens upper arm and dragged her away.

"What are you doing here?" Jack said to her furiously as he dragged her to a quiet corner.

"Owen called and said there were suspicious readings here, I was in my car on the way to work and I said I'd meet up with you." Gwen said quickly. "The SUV was parked outside and I just stepped inside and shouted for you."

"You shouldn't have come inside." Jack said.

"I didn't, well, look I had a foot through the door and yelled for you, you didn't answer and I took my phone out to call Owen back but there was no answer. I turned back to the cars and it was suddenly dark and my car and the SUV were gone."

"Damn it."

"So that's when I came inside, there were people around and I saw you then. What is going on?"

"We've gone through the rift, it's 20th January 1941." Jack told her.

"Shit! What are we going to do?"

"I don't know." Jack huffed. His original plan to live out the timeline was out the window.

"I have a life back home, Rhys!" Gwen panicked.

"Stop it." Jack grasped her shoulders and shook her lightly.

"OK, OK." Gwen said holding onto Jack's arms.

"Right, it's going to be okay." Jack assured her. "You're not going to like it if I suggest living through this time period?"

Gwen looked up at him. "What like….like you and I?"

"You'll die before we get back to our present day." He said avoiding her actual insinuation.

"We can use the rift to bring us back can't we?" Gwen asked desperately.

"It's dangerous."

"But we have to get back." Gwen cried hugging Jack around the waist.

"I know, I know." Jack said thinking of Ianto, he didn't want to wait more than 60 years to see him again.

"What can we do?" Gwen asked.

"I need to find a navigator and get accurate readings of today to somehow get back to Tosh." Jack said. "I need to talk to the Captain,"

"Who is he? He has your name? Did he steal your name?" Gwen asked quickly.

"It's a long story, I was undercover here and I took a name of someone who's life I could assume, I took his and faked the records that he survived."

"He dies?"

"Tomorrow." Jack told her. "Listen, keep a low profile and blend in, you're not exactly dressed to the usual fashion so don't draw attention to yourself."

Jack walked off and went to talk with Captain Harkness, Harkness pointed him to a brilliant navigator and he spoke with him at length to get accurate readings to send back to Tosh. Jack ignored the growing anxiety about the events that were seemingly falling into place as they had before, he was going to try and send the most accurate readings back in the hopes that they can avoid unleashing Abaddon, that was one dark time that Jack really wished to avoid.

"How are we going to get it back to Tosh?" Gwen asked Jack as she watched him go over the notes he made.

"Torchwood." He said bluntly.

"What?"

"I'm going to send it to Torchwood to be preserved in a time lock until the right time to open it." Jack told her.

"How are we going to get it there? We can't go across Cardiff on foot!" Gwen exclaimed thinking of the distance from the hub to where they were.

The blitz alert sounded forcing everyone in the basement hindering Jack's attempts to get the message to safety.

"Don't trust him." Jack said in an undertone to Gwen after she came back from speaking with Bilis Manger.

"What? He's harmless." Gwen smiled.

Jack shrugged. "Just don't." He advised.

"What's the plan once the air raid is over?" Gwen asked. "Wait! What if we get bombed?" She panicked.

"We won't the dance hall is still standing untouched in present day." Jack said. "It wasn't rebuilt."

"Oh good." Gwen replied relieved.

"The plan is, I'm going to send this to Torchwood,"

"I'll come with you."

"You can't."

"Why not."

"I'll be gone about thirty minutes Gwen. I've already made a phone call to a contact."

"Jack, you can't shut me out." Gwen protested.

"We are in 1941 Gwen, I'm trying to get us home, but you can't interfere with time at all, I can make the contact with Torchwood safely but you can't leave here." Jack said.

Gwen huffed.

"Trust me." Jack said.

Once the air raid was over Jack left the dance hall to meet his contact. It was actually the leader of Torchwood Cardiff during these times, he had never actually met Jack since the Jack living in this timeline petitioned for a posting abroad to serve in the war, and never met the current leader of Torchwood. Jack explained that they were future Torchwood operatives that had fallen backwards through time and lied by saying that they were going to live out their lives naturally here keeping a low profile.

Jack handed him the sealed envelope and gave him strict instructions to seal it in a time lock. Jack told him that the message was for their collegues back home explaining what happened to them so they wouldn't search fruitlessly for them.

The leader of Torchwood Three accepted the story and offered his condolences, saying that if they needed, Torchwood could help them set up new lives for them. Jack promised to call if they needed help but said they'd try it out themselves first.

Jack hurried back to the dance hall and caught Gwen talking with the other Jack Harkness.

"Captain." Harkness greeted Jack as he walked up to their table. "I was just speaking to your lady here."

"She's just a friend." Jack rushed to assure him, wiping Gwen's smirk off her face.

"Oh." Harkness said. "I apologised, Miss Cooper here said that you two are close, I made an assumption."

"That quite alright Captain Harkness." Jack assured him with a smile.

"So Captain what's your poison." Harkness stood up and gestured to the bar. "I just offered to buy your friend here a drink."

"Ah, that's very kind of you. A scotch if you wouldn't mind." Jack smiled.

Harkness walked with Jack to the bar, assuring Gwen to hold their table until they returned with the drinks.

"I apologise that I thought you and Miss Cooper were an item, did you meet her here after you volunteered?" Harkness asked as they approached the bar and flagged their order to a bartender.

"Not at all, I know her quite well," Jack said. "My partner is close friends with Gwen's partner."

"I didn't realise you were with someone." Harkness said softly.

"Yes, yes I am." Jack replied.

Harkness nodded and sipped his drink.

"Well must be a special person to gain your affections as such." Harkness said noticing the sparkle in Jack's eyes.

Jack smiled and nodded his agreement.

"If you pardon me but Miss Cooper seems rather affectionate towards you." Harkness said hesitantly.

Jack winced. "Yes, sort of an on going problem. She's been with her boyfriend for years, he'll probably ask her to marry him soon, but she still chases the dream I think."

"You are the dream?" Harkness asked.

"Well," Jack smirked. "I don't think I've encouraged it." He frowned lightly.

"Does she know about your partner?"

"Yes, yes I think so. We're not exactly hiding it." Jack frowned.

"Perhaps her upcoming engagement will help her settle."

"Rhys is good for her, loves her." Jack said mainly to himself as he picked Gwen's drink up and walked back to their table.

Gwen took a sip of her drink once both Jacks were seated.

**_AN: I personally quite like the song I found for this chapter and recommend anyone to go find it on youtube for a listen, the Frank Ifield version is good._**

**_P.S please review._**


	18. 1941 and Present Day

**AN: Thank you to everyone that has reviewed the last chapter, the positive feedback I'm getting is brilliant. I hope you enjoy this chapter, we're nearly at the end of the first series.**

**P.S I don't own Torchwood, or make any money for this.**

**The few hours I have spent with you are worth the thousand hours I spend without you - Unknown**

**Chapter 18: 1941 and the present day.**

Present day.

Once Ianto came down from Jack's office he saw Owen hang up the phone.

"Who was that?" He asked.

"Gwen's on her way in," Owen replied. "Told her what Jack was up to."

"OK. How long until she gets in?" Ianto asked as he drummed his fingers anxious since Jack's phone became unresponsive.

"Not long I expect." Owen said offhandedly. "Where's Tosh?"

"On the phone to her grandfather. It's his 88th birthday today, she's supposed to be on a train to London soon."

"Oh." Owen replied.

"Yeah. A party full of elderly Japanese men, it'll be a fun party." Ianto deadpanned.

Owen snickered. "I'll pass on that."

Ianto called Gwen's phone twenty minutes later after she still wasn't in but it was dead.

"Gwen still isn't in." Ianto said shutting his phone. "She should be here by now."

"She did say she was going to drop by and see if Jack needed help." Owen yawned unconcerned. "She must have arrived just after Jack."

"What?" Ianto asked more concerned than ever about the situation.

"Yeah. Told her about Jack swanning off and she said she'll drop by on her way in." Owen said offhandedly as he searched his desk for something.

"Jack said not to follow him to this one." Ianto said in despair, quickly opening his phone again and calling Rhys to double check the time that Gwen left their flat, as well as bringing up the CCTV of the road the Dance Hall was on to date stamp when Gwen's car went to the Hall.

"Why not?" Owen asked unconcerned.

"I don't know, he was cryptic, like he knew something like this would happen." Ianto said closing his phone and finding the CCTV images that showed Gwen standing outside the Hall, one foot in the door and probably yelling for Jack when a surge of static interrupted the CCTV for a moment and Gwen disappeared from the recording. "I'll get Jane to check out the dance hall, I'm going to do a more in depth search into this dance hall."

Ianto and Owen searched into the background of the dance hall and Ianto came across a rather unsettling photo.

"Owen, look!" Ianto called him over. There was a photo of Jack, Gwen and two other men.

"It's Jack and Gwen." Owen said.

"It's dated January 20th 1941." Ianto said in shock. "They've fallen through the rift to the past."

"Holy shit!" Owen summed up their feelings.

Jane reported in that she was hearing disjointed music from the 40's but not being able to find the source, she also said that she spoke with the caretaker of the place and was doing a thorough search of the place.

"We can use the rift to bring them back can't we?" Owen asked desperately.

"We can't it's too dangerous." Ianto retorted feeling the stress just as much.

"It's bloody alright for you, your bloke can live forever, and he can just wait around for you. Gwen will die of old age if we don't get her out of there." Owen shot at Ianto.

"You don't think I know that Owen." Ianto said bitterly. "I'm in a long line of lovers for him, a blip in time, he'll forget me soon enough."

Owen stopped moving and pacing. "Sorry mate. Look the rift calculations that Tosh has can help get them back."

Ianto shook his head. "We can't risk the city or the rest of the country to try and get them back."

Jane called back in and they discussed it together Jane revealing that the manager she spoke with was called Bilis Manger and once she said he wore a cravat like the one in the photo with Gwen and Jack, alarm bells rang in Ianto's head, he ordered Jane to retreat.

"Who the hell put you in charge? He's the source, he must be." Owen said desperately.

"We can't risk losing more people, what if he's trying to suck us back one at a time." Ianto retorted. "And Jack put me in charge."

Owen and Ianto continued to argue over using the rift to bring them back, Owen moved around Ianto and dragged the thick cables towards the workstations as Ianto looked on in two minds of what to do.

Owen yelled in frustration when he realised that there was a piece of the rift manipulator missing and Ianto breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't have to make that choice.

Ianto let Owen rush off saying he wanted to go help Jane out and 'do something useful' Ianto merely rolled his eyes at Owen's jibe and ignored him.

"Any news?" Tosh asked as she came in through the cog door.

"You are supposed to be on a train to London." Ianto said standing up and helping her with her laptop case and bag and coat.

"Well not when we are two agents down one of them being our Captain. What's new?"

"Owen's a little unstable." Ianto confided. "He's gone off to the dance hall to help Jane search the place, the man there Bilis Manger, we think this is the same man." Ianto showed Tosh the photos from 1941.

"Somehow he can travel through these two time periods?"

"He has a business in town a shop called 'A stitch in Time' the man in different photographs in different time periods but the same man." Ianto showed her everything they had found out so far.

"Gwen and Jack weren't together when they disappeared?" Tosh asked frowning.

"No, Jack got there first, he was on the phone to me saying he was going in. Owen contacted Gwen and she dropped by thinking she could help him. I reckon she entered the dance hall within four or five minutes or Jack going in. The photo indicates that they are together at the very least."

"You think Bilis Manger had something to do with this? That he stole them?" Tosh asked deferring to his leadership.

"He is the connecting factor." Ianto admitted. "We can't rule out the possibility."

"The question is why is he doing it, how is he doing it. And how do we get them back?"

"Owen wants to use the rift to get them back." Ianto told her.

"We can't use…."

"I know Tosh. He was intent on using the calculations you have. He found the equation on your computer but the other half is on your laptop."

"Small victories." Tosh mused.

"There's also a part of the manipulator missing and I'm not telling Owen that I know the codes for the secure archives, that's where the blueprints are held." Ianto told her.

"I knew that already, and yes I won't let on to Owen that you know that. What is our next step?"

"Just so I know before Owen gets back, is it possible to use the manipulator?" Ianto asked trying to keep the hope out of his voice.

"We would need to calculate their position in that time, I'd need to go through the records to do that and there's a chance that something will go wrong."

"The manipulator could compensate."

"No, it doesn't work like that. Even searching through historical data won't give me enough information to do this, it's incredibly risky. Besides we have no idea how the manipulator actually works nor where the missing piece is." Tosh said.

Ianto nodded. "So what can we do?"

"You're the boss." Tosh said turning to her workstation.

"Right, can you run some simulations, find out what might happen?" Ianto asked.

"Sure,"

Owen ran through the hub ten minutes later.

"We still can't do it. There's a piece missing." Ianto shouted after Owen as he ran in talking about opening the rift.

"Bilis had it all along." Owen said triumphantly as he brandished a circular disk in his hands.

"We haven't got the entire equation yet." Ianto called out as Owen fitted it in the manipulator.

"Tosh run the equation." Owen ordered.

Tosh looked torn. "I haven't finished the equation."

"Well hurry up!" Owen yelled.

Ianto turned to Tosh and nodded at her, she had already updated her equation using the historical data from the day in question but was still trying to run simulations.

"OK." Tosh sent the equation to the manipulator and they all watched as nothing happened.

"That worked." Ianto said dryly not sure whether or not to be happy about that.

A beeping alert from the workstations drew their attention from the display screen as Owen rushed into Jack's office swearing and cursing under his breath.

"What is that?" Tosh asked ignoring Owen.

"It's a secure archive alert." Ianto said.

"We have alerts for them?" Tosh asked as she hurried over to him.

"Not usually." Ianto said as he rushed to his workstation there was a secure message sent to Jack and himself.

"What is it?"

"Something in a timelock." Ianto replied as he rushed to Jack's office where Owen was rifling through Jack's journal.

"The manipulator could compensate for it." Owen said when he saw Ianto enter the office. "We need the codes to get into the secure archives."

Ianto ignored Owen and opened the secure archives, ignoring Owen's spluttering that Ianto already knew the codes where he had feigned ignorance only a few hours earlier.

"There's something in a time lock." Tosh said coming into the office explaining it to Owen who didn't know.

"So?"

"It's a little suspicious, something placed into a time lock to be opened right now." Tosh continued as Ianto found the time locked box and took it out of the safe, closing the safe securely after him.

Ianto removed a small box from the archive box, it was a white and blue box that seemed to be glowing slightly.

"They only glow when they are ready to be opened." Ianto told them. "They can only be programmed when they are open, if you close them you have to wait the amount of time it's programmed for. The alert system was set up to make sure they were opened up at the designated time, there are only a few things that are timelocked. Jack never knew what this was."

Ianto carefully entered the code sent to him by the alert and the box gave a small hiss and opened slightly. Ianto opened the lid carefully and withdrew an envelope.

"A letter?" Owen snarked.

"It's from Jack. It's his handwriting." Ianto said opening the envelope that was addressed to him.

Dear Ianto,

My plan hasn't gone exactly as desired, Gwen managed to stumble across the trap set out for us. It appears that things must go in a certain order. I've enclosed the readings for the day that Tosh can use to get accurate calculations. I don't want the rift to open Ianto, and I have the luxury of being able to wait to come back to you but Gwen doesn't have that luxury. If you have any doubts about it do not do it, even as I write this I am in two minds. I told you to watch out for Gwen and Owen for these reasons, the rift won't bring Diane back to Owen and Gwen is too sympathetic to Bilis Manger who is behind this.

I trust you with my life and soul Ianto, you will do the right thing I know you will. Don't hesitate to use whatever you must to follow your instincts.

I love you Ianto, and I will be back regardless of how long it will take.

Captain Jack Harkness.

"What does it say?" Tosh asked.

Ianto slipped the note into his pocket after withdrawing the second slip of paper, he handed it wordlessly to Tosh.

"Readings from the day." Tosh said in amazement, she hurried off to add them to the equation after receiving a nod from Ianto.

"What else."

"It's a goodbye in case it doesn't work." Ianto said shortly. "He says it was a trap laid out for them by Bilis Manger."

"Jane is still there." Owen said.

"Alert her," Ianto advised.

Owen rushed off and made the call, hovering over Tosh as she made the adjustments as Ianto observed things from Jacks office trying to make a difference.

"We have no idea what effect opening the rift will have." Ianto said as he made his way to Tosh and Owen.

"It's true, we could bring through anything." Tosh agreed.

"No, I'm sick of being in awe of the rift, I'm tired of living in Jack's shadow, with all his secrets, we know nothing about him." Owen shouted, he had been building on this for ages, growing more and more frustrated with the rift that took Diane from him, and watching all his happy collegues around him made him sick, Ianto and Jack had such luck on their side and it made him sick with jealousy that Diane wouldn't stay for him.

Owen charged at Ianto who stood in his way and rugby tackled him to the floor, elbowing him vicously before rushing into Jack's office, he had seen the codes for the archives before Ianto got the time locked messaged, he quickly went through the archives and found the blueprints for the rift manipulator.

"What are you going to do about Owen?" Tosh whispered.

"What I need to do." Ianto replied seriously coming back and loading a gun.

"You can't!" She said in horror.

Owen ran from Jack's office a folder of blueprints folded in one hand and ran towards the manipulator.

"Owen get away." Ianto ordered him.

Owen ignored him and fiddled with the manipulator rearranging it. "Send the equation Tosh."

"Get away Owen." Ianto brought up the gun to Owen.

"You're not going to shoot me."

"We have no idea what could happen. Gwen and Jack don't come before the fate of the city and the rest of the world." Ianto said strongly. "It won't bring back Diane so put the key down."

"Send the equation Tosh."

"Don't send it."

Tosh looked between the two men, she looked down and pressed the key to send it.

"Put the key down or I'll shoot." Ianto threatened. "You have to let Diane go." Ianto continued.

"Don't think you know what I'm feeling." Owen yelled.

"I lost my girlfriend in Canary Wharf." Ianto shouted angrily.

"Don't compare yourself to me, you're just a tea boy, promoted by sleeping with the boss."

"I'm more than that." Ianto protested his hand not wavering. "Jack needs me."

"In your dreams tea boy. You're just his part time shag, just convenient to him." Owen said viciously.

Owen stared Ianto down for a few seconds before pressing the key towards the manipulator.

Ianto shot Owen in the shoulder, Owen yelled and fell against the manipulator, his uninjured arm putting the key in the slot determinedly before falling down. Tosh had yelled in shock, jumping to her feet.

The manipulator hummed with energy as Tosh rushed past Ianto and dragged Owen away from the manipulator. The manipulator hummed increasing in noise and frequency, electrical sparks shooting off from the stem of the manipulator.

"You don't know what you've done." Ianto said in shock as everything went white.

1941.

Jack sat with Gwen at a table watching as Harkness spoke with his lady friend after Jack suggested it.

"We could be stuck here forever." Gwen said in despair.

"I'll look after you." Jack promised. "Could be worse, at least you're Welsh, fit right in,"

"Don't you bloody care?" Gwen said bitterly. "My whole life is there, you're used to starting over."

Jack turned to look at her. "I've lost count of how many times I've had to start over. I want to go back to Ianto."

Gwen looked at him. "You really like him." She said in a surprised tone as if she never considered it before.

"I love him." Jack said confidently. "Feel like I've been waiting my whole life for him."

Gwen smiled. "I never realised, you keep it so quiet."

"Ianto's a private person, and well it's our relationship." Jack shrugged, the only people needed in that relationship was Ianto and himself, he wanted sometimes to let everyone know that Ianto was with him, shout it from the rooftop if Ianto would let him but Jack respected Ianto's decision.

"How serious?" Gwen asked.

Jack shrugged. "Pretty much living together. He knows I love him, he says he loves me. I think he's told his sister about us."

"Wow." Gwen said. "I'm happy for you Jack." She sounded sincere.

"Thank you." Jack smiled at her.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments.

"Do you want to dance?" Gwen asked.

"Nobody's asked you yet?" Jack asked in mock shock.

Gwen rolled her eyes. "I think they are a bit weirded out by women wearing jeans."

"We are in 1941 Gwen." Jack said standing up. "You have to go with the times. The man always asks the lady here. Will you do me the honour of a dance Miss Cooper?" Jack smiled holding out a hand.

Gwen smiled and accepted his hand, they moved to the middle of the dance floor. Jack held her at a respectable distance as they danced. Gwen realised that she was honestly happy for Jack and Ianto, she had fancied Jack since she first met him, who wouldn't.

At the time she was going through a rough patch with Rhys, feeling like she was settling, when Jack stormed through her life she thought that he would be for her, that they would be together. But Jack never gave her a second look, he worked her hard, it seemed like harder than the others. But a conversation with Ianto told her that Jack wanted her to train up and possibly take second in command in a few years, she had always been praised for her leadership skills and since Ianto's conversation with her opened her eyes she fought hard to integrate herself in all aspects of Torchwood operations, learning at least the basic operations of each individuals jobs, which Ianto had encouraged and helped her with.

Whilst Jack and Gwen were dancing, Captain Harkness was watching Jack with a pensive expression, almost seeming conflicted, Jack spared him a warm smile as he caught his eye.

A white light encompassed one side of the room, where the doors were.

"Jack." Gwen said looking at the light.

"The rift has opened." Jack said.

Gwen grinned and ran to grab their coats from their table. She rushed back to Jack's side.

Jack turned and found Harkness, he saluted him and winked before grabbing Gwen's arm and stepping through the light together, making sure they wouldn't separate.

Present Day.

"Jack! Gwen!" Jane shouted in relief as Jack and Gwen exited the dance hall seeing the SUV, Gwen's car and Jane's car parked outside.

"We're back." Gwen shouted in relief jumping in the air with joy grabbing Jane and dancing with relief.

Jack chuckled at her antics.

"Oh Jack can I…" Gwen turned her doe eyes on Jack.

"Go find Rhys." He agreed happily.

Gwen grinned and hugged Jack before running to her car.

"But go straight to the hub after, we need to check you're OK." Jack yelled as she got behind the wheel and drove off giving them a wave.

"Everything alright?" Jane asked,

"Let's get back to the hub." Jack smiled.

Tosh tended to Owen's gunshot wound, helping Owen treat himself whilst he glared randomly at Ianto.

When Jack and Jane came back Jack made a beeline for Ianto grabbing him into a passionate kiss holding him close.

"I'm so glad I'm back," Jack whispered as he drew back from the kiss.

"I'm glad you're back." Ianto whispered kissing him again. "I wasn't sure if opening the rift was a good idea."

Jack chuckled. "At least you got to shoot Owen."

Ianto blushed in embarrassment. Jack held onto Ianto's hand and he addressed everyone there.

"It was a trap set by Bilis Manger," Jack said. "Gwen should be back soon. Tosh I need you to keep an eye on all rift activities from now on, they could all be linked."

"We brought you back." Owen said. "Thank you would be nice."

"Thank you Owen, for bringing us back." Jack said straightaway pausing for a moment. "Thank you for endangering the world."

Ianto pulled at Jack's hand. "It's done now, we deal with the consequences, it won't solve anything by pointing the finger."

Jack nodded. "You're right, sorry."

Gwen strolled in there at that moment looking like the cat that got the cream.

Jack grinned. "Find Rhys?" he said suggestively.

"I did. Snogged him in front of about ten of his work mates."

Jack chuckled. "I bet he loved that."

"He was a little confused." Gwen chuckled.

"Right well the rift stops for no man." Jack said putting them into action.

"What happened to Owen?" Gwen asked.

Jack grinned. "Ianto shot him."

"Good thing he's a lousy shot." Owen snarked.

"I was aiming for your shoulder." Ianto deadpanned.

"He's a brilliant shot, best out of all of you." Jack praised.

"What was that with Gwen earlier?" Ianto asked as Jack left Ianto's bathroom and came back into his bedroom.

"I think she realised just how much Rhys means to her, she was pretty upset to be stranded in the past, we reached an understanding." Jack smiled.

"You mean she's not going to moon over you anymore." Ianto said.

"Jealous are we?" Jack grinned.

"Do I need to be?" Ianto smirked.

"Absolutely not, but I love it when you get jealous." Jack said running his hands through Ianto's hair and dragging him into an intense kiss.

"Gwen didn't realise how serious we were, she said that she was happy for us when I told her. You okay with me telling her?"

"They all know, especially now that you kissed me in front of half the team." Ianto smiled.

"Well I was just doing what Gwen did. I was kissing my boyfriend after being stranded in the past, and glad to be home, be with you again." Jack said.

Ianto smiled. "I'm so glad you're back too."

"Listen I was thinking, you want me to meet you sister don't you?" Jack asked hesitantly.

"You seriously want to meet Rhiannon?" Ianto said, he had asked Jack before but wasn't sure if Jack would actually go through with it.

"Well she knows about us right?" Jack waited for Ianto's nod. "So, yes I want to meet her, she's part of your family."

"I'd like that." Ianto said softly smiling.

"Good. We might have to wait until this thing blows over though." Jack sad pushing Ianto towards the bed.

"What thing? Repercussions from opening the rift, you think things are going to get bad?"

"Bilis wanted us to open the rift, we don't know why yet." Jack said climbing on top of Ianto on the bed and kissing his deeply.

"End of the world, meeting my sister." Ianto smirked. "Which one is more frightening?"

"Definitely meeting Rhiannon, what if she hates me?" Jack said in mock horror.

"Everyone loves you." Ianto rolled his eyes.

"Even you."

"Especially me."

"Good. I love you too." Jack smiled and kissed Ianto.

Please review!


	19. Inevitable part one

**Chapter 19: Inevitable part one.**

**AN: Apologies for taking so long to update, real life sucks and I've injured my hand which makes typing pretty painful so my writing has slowed a bit, I will have the next chapter up next week, it's already finished, just needs some last minute editing. I hope you are all still liking it, I've taken the constructive points people have mentioned in their reviews to make it better. **

_I am the master of my fate_

_I am the Captain of my soul_

_Invictus- William Earnest Henley_

The next morning Jack woke up early as usual, he never needed to sleep for long but he had slept for quite a while. As Jack woke up he turned over and watched Ianto as he slept, he knew that it was likely to be the last time he would be able to be near Ianto alone for some time and that mere thought was almost crippling. Opening the rift had disastrous consequences and Jack was determined to do things better or at the very least Jack resigned himself to following the timeline as he remembered it, he would have to face down Abaddon again, but he wanted to try and avoid it if he could going into the darkness for that long wasn't enticing.

Jack slowly stroked Ianto's face memorising the face that was etched in his very soul, he would need memories like this to get him through the days to come.

Ianto stirred under his touch.

"Sorry." Jack apologised drawing his hand away.

"S'ok." Ianto mumbled snuggling closer to Jack sleepily.

Jack smiled wrapping his arms tenderly around his lover.

"What time?" Ianto asked keeping his eyes shut as he rested against Jacks chest, hooking one leg over Jacks.

"Just after 5 it's still really early." Jack replied. "Go back to sleep."

"I'm OK." Ianto replied stretching slightly in Jack's arms.

Jack grinned watching Ianto wake up was brilliant, for someone who was always up before the birds he still took ages to wake up properly.

Ianto tilted his head up and opened his eyes and looked into Jack's eyes. His forehead crinkled as he took in Jack's expression.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Jack replied immediately.

"Liar."

"I'm just worried." Jack admitted. Since he came back he promised himself to be more open with Ianto and it had brought them so much closer.

"Because the rift was opened?" Ianto asked.

"Yes, just feel like something is brewing." Jack shrugged trying to play it off a bit, he didn't want to worry Ianto.

Ianto leaned up and kissed Jack.

"What was that for?"

"Do I need a reason?" Ianto smirked.

"Nope."

"You were looking glum, it's up to me to cheer you up."

Jack grinned. "Well, I'm not going to argue with that."

Ianto grinned and kissed him, "Just how bad you think it'll get?"

Jack moved so they were lying face to face. "It's not going to be the end of the world. We're going to be fine."

"OK." Ianto said trusting Jack completely. He leaned forward and kissed him pouring everything he had into that kiss, Jack held onto Ianto tightly not wanting the moment to end and for them to face reality.

twtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtw

When they arrived at the hub Tosh was already scouring through the rift readings coming through. Andy and Jane were both going through police reports over strange incidences.

"Look at this." Jane said turning her workstation screen to the news.

There were reports of strange going on all over the world, a UFO hanging over the Taj Mahal, Samauri warrior on the Tokyo subway, soldiers from various points in history appearing and scenes of them fighting with the Police.

Jane already had Gwen and Andy in a conference call together and Tosh said that Owen was already on his way.

"And I heard but did not understand and I said, 'Master, what is the End of all these things?' And he said, " 'Go, Daniel, for the things are closed up and sealed until the end of time.' " Daniel 12, verse 10." Ianto said dramatically a Bible held in one hand.

"That's too close for comfort." Gwen winced in her seat, she had come in minutes earlier before Ianto found what he had looked for.

"That's enough Ianto." Jack ordered coming out of his office.

Owen wandered over from where he had been fixing the jar that held the Doctor's hand that had been damaged the night before when they opened the rift to get Jack and Gwen back. "Done with the portents of doom?"

"Plenty more where that came from." Ianto said cheerfully.

"Calls have come in all night Jack." Owen said. "CIA, Home Office, UNIT, FBI. All wanting to know what's going on."

"Did you tell them it's because of us?" Jack asked scathingly.

"Is it our fault?" Gwen asked.

"I've run a profile on every reported temporal anomaly and tracked any physical or temporal pattern." Tosh said leading them to her workstation, there was a map of the world and red lines started streaking all across the world all originating from the UK."

"Shit!" Gwen gasped.

"The cracks in time all originate from here, This city, this hub is the source. You opened the rift and now its splintering, what you see are the aftershocks and ripples." Jack said frustrated.

"Don't lay the blame with me." Owen said.

"I'm not." Jack stressed taking a deep breath to push back the fear of facing Abaddon. "But time is seeping through these cracks."

"So let's fix it." Owen stressed.

"How? Do you know how to?" Jack shouted.

"We'll think of something." Owen said desperately.

"We need to contain what's coming through the rift. Ianto, call Andy I know he's at the Police Station, get him to help relay control over this. Get UNIT on the phone and get them mobilised to help out."

"There's a priority one at the hospital." Ianto said as his workstation alerted him. "Mortality rate has shot up, they are designating it a hot zone and sealing it off."

"I'll go." Owen said grabbing his jacket.

"Tosh, go with him." Jack ordered.

"I can do it myself."

"Tough, no one goes anywhere alone." Jack said.

Tosh nodded and followed Owen.

"This isn't the end of the world. I promise." Jack said sincerely.

Tosh ushered Owen out of the hub.

"You didn't need to pick on him in front of everyone." Gwen argued.

"I was being rather nice actually." Jack retorted.

"He has feelings too." Gwen continued.

Jack bit his lip and sighed. "I know, but actions have consequences, but it's not him that will have to deal with it." Jack said cryptically leaving Gwen standing by Ianto's workstation.

"What does he mean by that?" Gwen asked.

"He's been moody today, like he knows just how bad it's going to get." Ianto said, one hand held over the speaker of the phone he was on.

Gwen nodded.

"I need you to help Andy with dealing with this. Tell him to sedate anyone he has to and to bring anyone here that Cardiff PD can't contain." Ianto told her.

Gwen nodded and scurried off to do what Ianto told her too.

twtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtw

Jane and Matt in the meanwhile left the hub to help the Police and various UNIT taskforces out in the city. Jane called in saying they were dealing with a Roman unit of soldiers barricaded inside Cardiff Castle.

Tosh called in saying that a victim of the plague landed in the hospital and infected the patients and staff there. Owen left them with the containment and treatment answers and rushed back to the hub.

Andy called in saying that a Roman soldier was captured in Penarth after brutally murdering two people. He said that there was nothing to do and sedated him after he was causing a scene in the cells.

Weevils were on the rise as well, Gwen and Ianto left to bring in a few Weevils that were causing a scene and Jack gave Andy permission to brief Cardiff PD on Weevils and how to deal with them.

Ianto and Gwen escorted a particularly violent Weevil into a cell, Ianto dropped the semi unconscious Weevil on the floor as Gwen backed out. Ianto took a few moments and followed her out.

"Gwen?"

She was standing two cells down looking into what Ianto was sure should be an empty cell.

"Are you coming?" Ianto asked her.

She blinked and came out of her stare before rushing out.

Ianto frowned at her behaviour and turned around noticing that Janet the Weevil was moaning softly as if in pain, he wondered idly if they were able to sense what was coming.

"Ianto."

Ianto turned and saw Lisa standing next to him.

"Lisa? But you're…you're dead."

"There's only one way to stop this, before things get worse. People will die Ianto. You have to open the rift, it's the only way to stop this." Lisa said.

Ianto closed his eyes and ignored her, she wasn't real.

He opened his eyes and she was gone. The Weevil howled as Ianto turned to leave.

"Gwen said she saw Bilis the caretaker downstairs, said he was sorry for some reason." Jack said once Ianto rejoined the others.

"Right." Ianto nodded. He paused and frowned. "Sorry, for what?"

"Don't know."

Jack turned as Owen stalked in and Tosh following.

"How was the hospital?"

"Bundle of laughs."

"Is it contained?"

Tosh sat down heavily in her chair, lost in thought.

"You alright there?" Ianto asked her softly.

Tosh shook herself out and smiled at Ianto. "Yes, fine. Hospital is contained, they have control over the situation."

"This is stupid. Here we are putting plasters on gaping wounds, you need to tell us how to fix it." Owen yelled.

"There is no cure Owen." Jack shouted, his own fears and insecurities rising as he thought of Abaddon. "The rift is splintering, what do you suggest?"

"You're our leader, so lead us." Owen yelled.

"Owen." Gwen said softly.

"No, you all think it, Jack with his secrets, so share with us. It's alright for you, you can't bloody die!"

"I do die, but I always come back!" Jack yelled back. "You want to know how to fix this, there is no solution, no nice way to do it."

"The rift can't be closed?"

Jack closed his eyes involuntarily thinking of how the rift can be closed permanently.

"The first thing you learn in Torchwood is not to mess with the rift. You disobeyed those orders and this is the results." Jack said instead.

"In your letter…" Ianto said softly, as if unsure whether or not to bring it up.

Jack turned to Ianto. "I know, I know."

"Fighting won't help us right now," Ianto said looking between Owen and Jack. "So let's stop."

"Why? We don't even know who you are, Jack Harkness, that isn't even your name." Owen said sharply.

"Owen!" Ianto shouted.

"What?"

"Drop it alright." Ianto told him sternly.

Jack and Owen shared a tense glare.

"Ianto's right, we can't fight." Jack told him keeping his emotions under reign. "I've been Jack Harkness for over 140 years Owen, I think that's long enough."

Owen nodded shortly, he wasn't satisfied but it would have to do. He wasn't actually angry at Jack but it seemed to be the only outlet and he couldn't stop himself from lashing out.

_Review review review :)_


	20. Inevitable part two

**AN: Once again a massive thank you to everyone that has reviewed and read my story so far. Phoenix is now dividing into a sort of series, this is the last chapter of Rebirth coinciding with the end of TW series 1. The Doctor Who episodes with Jack, Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the TimeLords will be up soon, I've written it just need final editing and maybe some tweaking. Much love to those who have stuck with me so far.**

**Chapter 20: Inevitable Part 2.**

**_The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.- Dom Williams._**

"Are we going to try and find Bilis?" Gwen asked as Jack and Owen broke up their confrontation.

"No, he's trying to lure us into another trap, we don't listen to anything he says." Jack said sharply turning away and going into his office and slamming his door shut.

Ianto stood watching Jack' closed office door for a few moments before he followed him ignoring Gwen's protests to leave him.

"What the hell was that?" Ianto asked once he got inside the office.

"What?" Jack asked defensively.

"You're mood swings are driving me nuts. Bilis is our only lead here and you won't go after him." Ianto continued angrily.

Jack sighed and turned away from Ianto.

"This is all going to go to shit." Jack huffed.

"There has to be something we can do." Ianto asked.

"There is." Jack replied.

"What?"

"Don't you think it's curious? Bilis orchestrated the events that led to Gwen and I being stranded in the past, he's here in the present, Gwen's already seen him and the rift is splintering. Opening the rift is dangerous, we have no idea what could happen." Jack said calmly watching his lover.

"I know that." Ianto told him. "Talk to me here, what's going on, you're acting really odd."

"Don't worry." Jack said automatically.

"Well I am."

Jack turned to Ianto and hugged him tightly. Ianto was shocked, usually they had a very professional relationship at work yet here Jack was breaking those rules.

"What's wrong? You are acting as if this really is the end of the world."

Jack leaned back and cupped Ianto's cheeks. "This is not the end of the world, I promise you that. You won't understand this now but I will always come back to you."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll understand later." Jack kissed Ianto chastely.

They were interrupted by Tosh knocking on the door.

"What is it?"

"I don't know. Andy's called in saying there's a fight breaking out between the Roman legion at Cardiff Castle and the UNIT squad we posted there to keep them contained. Gwen's rushed out and Owen's stormed out when you came in here." Tosh reported.

Jack nodded. "Where has Gwen gone?"

"I don't know. I think Owen's sulking, but Gwen left quite suddenly." She said looking worried.

Jack nodded. "Alright then, call Gwen find out what she's doing and call Owen and get him back. Get Andy to order UNIT to drop some CS gas in the perimeter to keep them inside the castle. And get another UNIT squad there."

Gwen in the meanwhile had rushed from the hub when she saw Bilis lurking in the corner mouthing the words 'I'm so sorry' She left the hub hoping that Bilis would follow, Jack seemed to be unsure of what to do so she could follow her own leads with caution.

Gwen rushed down the Plass she made it past the Millenium Centre when she saw Bilis again.

"I'd have thought you would have tried to find me." He commented as Gwen approached him.

"You were in 1941." Gwen said instead.

"So were you."

"How can you do that?"

"I can slip through the times as easy as stepping into another room." He said airily. "At first I thought it were a blessing, now I see it for what it is, a curse."

"Why is that?" Gwen asked curiously.

"I can go anywhere in time, but I don't belong anywhere, like your friend."

"Jack? He belongs here." Gwen defended.

Bilis gave her a superior look as if he knew more than her.

"What do you know about what is going on?" Gwen asked instead.

"You're coming back through time left its mark." Bilis said. "It's splintering and the only way to resolve that is to open it fully, allow what has fallen through to be sucked back and the rift to close naturally."

"Can we even do that?" Gwen asked more to herself.

"Oh yes you can. Your leader probably doesn't want you to know that."

Gwen didn't answer.

"Lives will be lost if this doesn't get resolved. Your Captain is stuck in his ways, I can visit the future, I know things will return to normal." Bilis said.

"Why did you say sorry, earlier in the cells." Gwen asked.

"No, sometimes it is better to be ignorant." Bilis turned to leave.

"No, wait," Gwen danced around and faced him again "Tell me."

"I can show you…if you really want to know."

"Know what?"

Bilis appeared to be hesitant. "Take my hands."

Gwen hesitated and looked at him carefully before putting her hands in his.

Gwen saw flashed of her flat with Rhys, the view changed and she saw bloody walls, the sharp tang of blood in the air, she saw Rhys' dead lifeless, bloody body lying face down between the couch and the kitchen, a pool of blood coagulating under him.

"What did you show me?" Gwen stepped back taking her hands back.

"The future." Bilis said solemnly.

Gwen looked at him before running as fast as she could away from him.

Gwen ran home as fast as she could, she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Rhys standing in the kitchen.

"Oh there you are, home today are we? I was thinking…" Rhys said as he heard and saw her come inside.

"Rhys, we need to go." Gwen said after she hugged him tightly and kissed him,

"Go where?"

"It's very important, come on." Gwen said urgently pulling at his arm.

"It always is with you Gwen." Rhys chuckled. "You've only got one speed these days."

"Rhys please!"

"Give me a minute." Rhys had been in the middle of cleaning the oven, he pulled off the marigold gloves. "Where's the fire then eh love?"

"Rhys, we need to go somewhere else, please." Gwen said as she cast looks around her as if someone was after her.

"We have to go!" Gwen raised her voice.

"Ever since that bloody job I don't understand half of what you're going on about." Rhys said getting agitated.

Gwen sighed. "I'm so sorry." She tasered Rhys.

Once Gwen got Rhys back to the hub she put him in the cells.

Jack was watching the CCTV of Rhys in the cells anxiously, he had said several times to bring him up to the main level but Gwen said not to.

Gwen spoke with him once he woke up and left him to come back to work.

Ianto went down to the cells shortly after wards to speak with him.

"Gwen!" Rhys shouted once he heard the end door open again.

"It's Ianto."

"Oh, you alright mate. Can you get me out of here then eh?" Rhys and Ianto knew each other for a few years, Rhys knew Ianto's older sister and her husband so Ianto and Rhys had met a few times before Ianto joined Torchwood.

"Listen, I don't know what Gwen has told you about where we work." Ianto started.

"Bloody nothing, just some weird bits," Rhys huffed.

"Things are pretty hectic and strange out there right now. Gwen thinks by keeping you here you will be safe." Ianto wasn't really sure how locking up would help but Gwen was being stubborn.

"How? I was just fine in the flat. How did you get mixed up with this Yan?"

"Been here for a few years," Ianto smiled. "Just sit tight Rhys, once the situation is resolved we'll explain what's going on."

"Tell me now." Rhys asked agitated. "You can't lock me up, that's against my civil rights."

"We don't have to adhere to civil rights, and you're not arrested or in trouble." Ianto sighed. "I'll try and get Gwen to put you upstairs at the very least. She's just worried for your life."

Rhys sighed.

"I had thought that he would be the route to my plan. I see now that it is not true." Bilis Manger said from the corner of the vaults, co inciding with the intruder alarms going off.

"Jack! Bilis is down in the vaults." Ianto automatically tapped his ear piece to alert Jack.

"It won't work." Bilis chided gently.

The door exiting the vault floor was locked and the vault doors were still locked with Rhys looking on helplessly as Bilis walked forward smoothly.

"What do you want?" Ianto asked internally chastising himself for not having a weapon on him.

"What I want?" Bilis smiled. He drew his hand into his suit jacket and withdrew a small revolver. "A knife is so much better, more intimate I find." He said casually. "But you probably have some hand to hand training, so this will have to do."

"Leave him alone." Rhys slammed his fist on the vault door.

"I'd be grateful if I were you." Bilis addressed Rhys. "For you were my initial target."

"It was fake, what you showed Gwen." Ianto asked.

"No, it was real, but I've changed my mind now." Bilis shot his weapon, hitting Ianto in the chest.

Rhys watched helplessly as Ianto fell to the floor dark red blood seeping into his stark white shirt as Bilis disappeared in a heartbeat and the intruder alarm stop.

The vault door opened and Rhys rushed out and dropped to his knees next to Ianto, his hands already pulling off his shirt and pressing it to his gunshot wound to stem the flow of blood. His other hand grasped the ear piece on Ianto's ear hoping he could raise the alarm.

"Hello? We need help here." Rhys said tapping it like Ianto had done.

"RHYS!" He heard Gwen yell with the thundering of feet.

"Gwen!" He yelled back.

"Oh Rhys! You're OK." She yelled back happily as she sped around the corner falling to her knees at the sight of her boyfriend desperately trying to keep Ianto alive.

"Oh, my god!" Gwen whispered crawling closer taking in the sight of Ianto's barely moving chest.

"We need to call an ambulance." Rhys said urgently.

The rest of the thundering of feet entered the vaults and they all took in what had happened.

"No, no, no, no!" Jack cried out as he fell to the floor his hands fluttering uselessly around Ianto. "No, no, no, no, no, please."

"Where's Owen?" Gwen asked Tosh who was at the door, looking at her best friend dying.

"He, erm, he's coming back." Tosh said before using her phone to find Owen or Matt.

"Ianto?" Jack asked his hands settling onto the cloth covered wound to help stop the blood.

"It was some bloke called Bilis." Rhys said thinking it would help that he told them everything he knew from their short exchange. "He tried calling you on the ear thing you have but it wasn't working."

"How can he get into the hub?" Gwen asked angrily keeping close to Rhys as if to protect him if Bilis came back.

"He shouldn't, at least we know that he triggers the intruder alarm when he does." Tosh said quietly her eyes fixated on the dying form of her best friend.

"Ianto, please hold on, come on, stay with me," Jack begged the man in his arms. "Please, stay with me."

"Hey, it was good yeah?" Ianto asked blearily, opening his eyes a crack, startled to see Jack crying unashamedly.

Jack sobbed, he mind flickering back to where he first heard those words in a similar scenario before.

"Don't forget me." Ianto whispered.

"Never could." Jack replied. "I'll remember you even if I were a billion years old."

Ianto smiled softly. "I love you."

"I love you Ianto, and you're going to fine, you have to stay with me." Jack begged.

Jack pressed a tender kiss to Ianto's lips, as Ianto's chest stilled.

"Oh, god." Gwen sobbed falling back onto the floor next to Ianto and Jack.

"How is he?" Owen asked. He had come back to an entirely different hub, Jack was sitting with Ianto in the autopsy bay where he carried his lover up, Jack hadn't said a word to anyone only sat with Ianto touching him as if he let go Ianto would disappear.

"He's just sitting there." Tosh whispered. "He looks distraught."

"Opening the rift is supposed to fix all this. It could bring him back." Owen said.

"We can't trust Bilis. Rhys said that he was the man that killed Ianto. He's goading us into this very action."

"You can't tell me you want him to stay dead!" Owen snarled at her flinging a hand in Ianto's direction angrily. He regretted it moments later when her eyes filled with tears and she looked away.

"He's my best friend." Tosh replied.

Owen huffed and returned his gaze to the autopsy bay where he could see Jack flitting over Ianto, smoothing his clothes out and running his hand through his hair as if he were injured and asleep rather than dead.

"What's happened?" Jane asked the moment she stepped through the cog door, with Matt on her heels, they had just been given the order from Jack to get to the hub asap and they dropped their posts with UNIT to come back.

"What the hell happened to Ianto?" Matt asked as he saw Jack and Ianto down in the autopsy.

"Bilis Manger shot Ianto down in the vaults when he went to speak with Rhys, long story." She waved at the part where they didn't know why Rhys was in the hub.

"Good, you guys are here." Jack had heard Jane and Matt's approach and left Ianto's side with a kiss and a promise.

"Jack." Tosh startled at his sudden reappearance and the look of cold determination on his face.

"Listen to me very carefully and most definitely do not repeat what I'm about to do." Jack started.

"OK," They promised.

"Right, Jane, I want you to watch Ianto, Tosh I want you on the terminals eyes on all the heat signatures in the hub, Owen, let Myfanwy out." He added the last part seeing how Ianto gave Jack a bollocking the last time because Myfanwy had been quite badly injured trying to escape the hub in the ruckus, Myfanwy would do what she did every time she was let out, she would bank over the waters and head towards Penarth.

"Jack's it's the middle of the day."

"Why?"

"Heat signatures?" They all asked immediately.

"I just told you to listen to me carefully. I doubt any of those requests were too difficult for you." Jack said harshly.

The three of them nodded and moved to their spots.

"Rhys, I want you to stay there." Jack said, knowing that he'd likely disappear.

Jack went to Tosh's workstation relegating Tosh over to Owen's station and started Protocol One.

"What's Protocol One?" Gwen asked since she had the best view over Jack's shoulder.

"Protocol One is accessing the rift manipulator. Jack's going to open the rift." Owen said slightly horrified and glad at the same time, he exchanged a look with Tosh.

Jack didn't say anything instead handed the iris recognition to Gwen and instructed her to scan all the staff inside the hub, which included Ianto. Since Andy was barely a part time member Jack never added his recognition onto the Protocol.

"Why didn't you need this last time?" Gwen asked Tosh once she handed the iris recognition back over to Jack.

"We increased security of the rift manipulator since then, plus because we're opening the rift blindly and completely it needs this regardless." Tosh explained.

"Do we have any idea what could happen?" She asked.

"What if it were Rhys on that table?" Tosh asked.

"I'd have done anything." Gwen replied softly understanding Jacks motives.

Jack had initiated Protocol One and slipped on his coat, knowing they'd have to leave the hub in seconds. The rumbling of the ground and the scattering of the loose objects around the hub told Jack it was working.

He heard Jane exclaim that Ianto had disappeared as Tosh cried out that the heat signature had reappeared. Jack turned to the spot where Ianto had reappeared. The exact spot he was standing in as Owen opened the rift the first time. Ianto looked puzzled at the state of the hub and the anxious expressions of his team mates.

"We gotta go." Jack rushed forward and grasped Ianto's hand and pulled him towards the exit.

"But Rhys! Where's he gone?" Gwen cried out as Tosh and Owen followed Jack out of the hub.

"He'll be at your flat, where he was at the start of all this." Jack yelled out, the joy evident in his voice.

They managed to get a street or two away, Gwen telling them all that everything would work out.

They turned down a corner and saw Bilis watching the skies intensely.

"From out of the darkness he has come." He said grandly.

"What is he talking about?" Gwen asked breathlessly.

"Son of the Great Beast, cast out before time, chained in rock and imprisoned beneath the rift." He continued in a grand voice.

"What?" Gwen gasped.

"Tosh, get the SUV." Jack croaked at her.

"All hail Abaddon, the Great Devourer." He continued. "Come feast on life!"

"The whole world will die beneath his shadow."

As they all turned to see the great hulking figure of an enormous beast Bilis used the moment to disappear.

Tosh came back with the car that was parked around the corner.

"How do we stop this." Gwen asked desperately.

Jack turned to Ianto. "Remember what I told you earlier. I love you." He kissed Ianto passionately and got into the car. "Stay here, stay safe. Gwen drive."

Gwen got in the car and took off.

"Why me?" Gwen asked as she drove.

Jack didn't answer.

Once they were at an open space Jack got out of the car telling Gwen to get away.

Jack lured Abaddon to him and his bottomless pit of life force fought against Abaddon's opposite effect killing Abaddon.

Gwen rushed back to Jack once Abaddon disappeared and was dismayed to see that he was dead. She dragged him back into the SUV and drove back to the hub.

"What happened?" Owen asked as he met her at the SUV.

"He's dead. But he'll come back again." Gwen said determinedly.

Owen helped bring him down to the medical bay and left him with Ianto as Tosh started clearing up the debris that had fallen. Gwen rushed off again presumably to find out if Rhys was OK.

Ianto sat with Jack as he heard Owen and Tosh call the others back to the hub and start the clean up operation.

"He's still cold mate." Owen said hours later.

"He'll come back." Ianto replied.

Owen left Ianto to it.

Gwen came back with the good news that Rhys was alive and well and didn't remember any of the incidence. She sat with Ianto for some time, supporting his belief that Jack would come back.

The next day however Owen moved Jack down to the storage vaults, he was clinically dead, he was cold, had gone through rigor mortis and his pallor was changing just like any dead body.

Both Ianto and Gwen protested to putting Jack in the storage vaults, so Owen let them wait it out.

"He'll come back." Gwen said for the third time that morning as she watched Ianto sit on the floor next to Jack's slab.

"You've got your boyfriend back Gwen. Why are you here? Just leave me alone." Ianto asked tiredly.

Gwen came and sat down next to him. "Yes, I got Rhys back but Jack's, well Jack's taking his sweet time coming back. He'll come back cariad."

"I don't know, it's been so long. He says it only takes a few hours."

"He tells you that?"

"Yeah, he's told me." Ianto admitted. "He said he'd be back, but he's taking so long."

"Tosh found this earlier, it was on Jack's desk." Gwen withdrew the envelope from her pocket and handed it to Ianto.

Ianto took the envelope and looked at it before opening it, Jack had beautiful handwriting which Jack said was only from having to use old style calligraphy pens in the past that improved his penmanship.

_Dear Ianto,_

_As you are reading I will be lying dead in the morgue after facing Abaddon. I knew this was going to happen, hence my 'moodswings' as you called them, I keep my promises to you. I will be back, it may take a few days but I'll return, speak to me, touch me, kiss me. It'll help bring me back. _

_Don't hesitate to boot anyone out if you can't stand them, I want you next to me when I come back, because it'll always be you that I'm coming home for. _

_There is an envelope in the top drawer of my desk that contain instructions for the team, if you need them after I wake up. The Doctor has appalling timings for a Time Lord so he'll end up arriving pretty soonish, there may not be time to say goodbye but without wanting to steal someone else's line I'll be back. I'll always come back to you Ianto. But I have to go with the Doctor, timelines and all. Take care of the team while I am gone, I trust you with them._

_Take care of my heart, for I've left it with you._

_Jack._

Ianto sobbed as he finished the letter, folding it carefully and putting it in his pocket.

Gwen put her arm around Ianto and soothed him.

"Go home to Rhys, Gwen. I want to be alone with him." Ianto asked her.

"Alright. If you want company, just call me OK." Gwen said kissing his cheek and leaving him.

Ianto tried to speak with Jack, he held his hand or stroked his hair or face but it took two days for Jack to come back. Ianto had leaned down and kissed him, and mere seconds later Jack opened his eyes and took a quite breath.

"Jack?"

"Ianto." Jack smiled. "Told you so."

Ianto chuckled and leaned down and kissed Jack again.

It took some time to help Jack up, his muscles were rather stiff from lying still for days and Ianto helped him into his clothes and they made their way upstairs.

"Jack!" Gwen spotted him first and hugged him exuberantly before hugging Ianto.

Tosh rushed over for a hug herself, Jane, Matt and Andy all greeting him happily, glad that he was alright. Jack hugged Owen and said he forgave him for his doubts about Jack when he saw him much to Owen's relief.

"Why didn't you want me to go with you when you faced Abaddon?" Ianto asked when Owen and Tosh left to get coffees, the others disappearing to give Jack and Ianto some alone time together.

"I didn't want you near it, I could survive it but you can't. Gwen on the other hand, she'd be fine if she done what I told her, she needed to see the effect of her blindly following Bilis against my orders."

Ianto nodded.

"I was trying to keep you safe."

"Why do I remember everything that happened but Rhys doesn't?" Ianto asked.

"You were in the eye of the storm so to speak." He said stiffly. "Both times the rift opened you were here, Rhys was only there once so he doesn't remember it but you do."

"The Doctor is coming for you?" Ianto asked moving onto the letter.

"Not exactly." Jack replied. He moved to his desk and withdrew the letter in question. "States that you are in charge, you're the eldest member of Torchwood apart from Tosh and Owen, both of whom can't lead this team."

"Don't you want me to come with you and the Doctor?" Ianto asked carefully.

Jack had withdrawn a backpack from his quarters and left his office, he dropped the bag next to the Doctors severed hand and turned back to Ianto.

He took Ianto into his arms, "The Doctor won't want to see me, I'll literally have to jump him probably."

Ianto nodded.

"Is that a no?"

"I want you to come with me, I've wanted to show you the stars for a while now, but I might not even be able to get inside the TARDIS before the Doctor tries to leave."

Ianto nodded.

"I love you, and I swear, I'm coming back." Jack said resting his forehead against Ianto.

"I love you too." Ianto said kissing Jack intensely.

"Shall I see what's taking them so long with the coffees?" Ianto offered as Jack put on his coat ready to go for when the Doctor arrived.

Jack nodded and kissed Ianto goodbye, sure that the Doctor would arrive and leave before Ianto returned.

Ianto nodded and left the hub.

Jack paced slightly patting his pockets to check he had everything he needed. Once the hand starting reacting he put it in the bag, cast one look at the hub and ran towards the TARDIS.

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